Colorado Springs LGBTQ club shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich hit with new federal hate crime charges

The shooter who killed five people and wounded dozens of others in a has been hit with new federal hate crime and firearm charges. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23, plans to in order to avoid the death penalty, according to court documents made public on Tuesday. Under the agreement with prosecutors, Aldrich would instead receive multiple life sentences in addition to a 190 year sentence, if a judge approves.

Aldrich previously — one for each person at Club Q during the attack on Nov. 19, 2022 in Colorado Springs. They also pleaded no contest to two hate crimes, one a felony and the other a misdemeanor. Aldrich was . Armed with an AR 15 style semiautomatic weapon, Aldrich opened fire at patrons and staff at the popular Colorado Springs nightclub.

The attack was stopped by a Naval officer and Army veteran who intervened. Officials later learned that Aldrich, who’s nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, was forced to go to LGBTQ clubs by their mother, who is also nonbinary. They also while playing video games online. However, Aldrich hasn’t said why they were at the club, left and then returned dressed in body armor before they started shooting.

In a series of phone calls from behind bars, Aldrich told The Associated Press they were on a “very large plethora of drugs” and abusing steroids at the time of the attack. They added it was “completely off base” to say they were motivated by hate. Prosecutors have argued that Aldrich never identified as nonbinary before the shooting and is only doing so to avoid hate crime charges.

Jeff Aston, whose son Daniel Aston was killed in the attack, called the massacre a “hateful, stupid, heinous and cowardly act,” per The AP, adding that he would like to see Aldrich “suffer as much as the suffering caused for so many victims and family members.”.