DENVER, Colo. – A suspect in a Colorado Springs Q Club mass shooting is expected to reach a plea deal to plead murder and hate charges that would secure at least a life sentence for the attack that left five people dead. and 17 injured, several survivors told The Associated Press.
Here are the key points:
WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE LEGAL CASE?
News of a possible legal resolution of the Q Club massacre last November follows a series of phone calls from prison suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich to the AP expressing remorse and an intention to face the consequences at the next court hearing scheduled for this month.
Federal and state authorities and defense attorneys declined to comment on a potential plea deal. But Colorado law requires victims to be notified of such dealings, and several people who lost loved ones or were injured in the attack told the AP that state prosecutors told them Aldrich will plead guilty to charges that would ensure the state’s maximum sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors also recently asked survivors to prepare for the June 26 hearing by writing victim impact statements and preparing for the possible release of surveillance video of the Q Club attack.
The US Department of Justice is still considering filing federal hate crime charges, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the matter who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing case. It’s unclear if the state attorney’s advance ruling will also resolve the ongoing FBI investigation.
WHAT DID THE SUSPECT TELL AP?
“I have to take responsibility for what happened,” the 23-year-old suspect said during one of six calls with the AP last month, his first public comments on the case.
Aldrich, who since his arrest has identified as non-binary and uses the pronouns they and they, added that they still cannot believe he was responsible for such devastation.
“Nothing is going to bring their loved ones back,” they said. “People will have to live with injuries that cannot be repaired.”
When asked why it happened, he said: “I don’t know. That’s why I think it’s so hard to understand what happened. … Either I will receive the death penalty at the federal level or I will go to prison for life, that is a fact.”
While The Associated Press would not normally provide a platform to someone who allegedly committed such a crime, the editors felt that the suspect’s stated intent to accept responsibility and expression of remorse were newsworthy and should be reported.
WHAT DO THE SURVIVORS SAY ABOUT THE INTERVIEW?
Several survivors of last year’s Club Q massacre criticized the suspect interview as a calculated attempt to avoid the federal death penalty, saying they stopped short of discussing the motive, placed much of the blame on drugs and characterized the crime as in passive generalities.
“Nobody really likes him,” said Michael Anderson, who was working as a bartender at Club Q when the shooting broke out and ducked as patrons were shot dead around him.
“Someone is gone who can never be brought back through the justice system,” said Wyatt Kent, who was celebrating his 23rd birthday at Club Q when Aldrich opened fire, fatally shooting Kent’s partner Daniel Aston, who I worked behind the bar. “We all still lack a lot, a partner, a son, a daughter, a best friend.”
WHAT EVIDENCE SUPPORTS A HATE CRIME?
The suspect entered Club Q just before midnight on November 19 and indiscriminately fired an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle. The killing only stopped after a Marine petty officer grabbed the barrel of Aldrich’s rifle and burned his hand because it was so hot. An Army veteran joined in to help subdue and beat Aldrich until the police arrived.
Prosecutors say the suspect had visited Club Q at least six times in the years before the attack. District Attorney Michael Allen told a judge that the suspect’s mother made Aldrich come to the club “against her will and forced him to accept that culture.”
Allen also said Aldrich ran a website that posted a shooting training video of “neo-Nazi white supremacists.” Friends of the online games said Aldrich expressed hate for the police, LBGTQ people and minorities and used anti-black and gay slurs. And a police detective testified that Aldrich posted an online message with a photo of a rifle scope pointed at a gay pride parade.
Defense attorneys have not disputed Aldrich’s role in the shooting, but have rejected allegations that it was motivated by hate, arguing that the suspect was high on cocaine and medication the night of the attack.
