On 19 November 2022 at midnight, Anderson Lee Aldrich walked into the Gay Club, Club Q in Colorado. They opened fire on the party-goers with an AR-15-style rifle, killing seven and wounding 15 others.
They were charged with 305 criminal counts.
A year ago, in 2021, Aldrich was arrested after having a stand-off with the SWAT Team. They arrived at their grandparents' house with a weapon and threatened to kill them if they got in the way of their plans to become the “next mass killer.”
During the trial, Judge Robin Chittum revealed that the defendant had been stockpiling weapons and making bombs.
Chittum told Aldrich that he needed serious medical attention, intensive therapy, and to stay on his meds. Otherwise, it would be worse.
However, these charges were all dropped, and the record was sealed. The case was dismissed due to its deadline and lengthiness, which lasted only four minutes.
Aldrich’s grandparents even wrote a letter to Chittum saying they were “certain” to murder if free, but he declined any comment.
This has led people to believe this incident could have easily been prevented and there is negligence on the court’s behalf.
Colorado has a “red flag” law that allows relatives or law enforcement officials to ask a court to seize guns from someone potentially dangerous. The Colorado Springs community wonders why this wasn’t used, a prime example of the red-flag law being used.
If Aldrich had all his weapons confiscated in 2021, the outcome on November 19, 2022, may have been different.
People even wrote letters after the shooting to Club Q’s co-owner, Matthew Haynes, proclaiming that Aldrich was doing “God’s work.”
This reinforces the same thoughts and hates that Aldrich exercised when he committed the heinous crime and shows the kind of leniency they received after saving them.
There seems to be plenty of evidence to have deemed Aldrich dangerous, but the documents are all sealed.
Even though Judge Michael McHenry requested that the arrest warrant affidavit be unsealed, Aldrich’s defense attorney declined it due to the publicity surrounding the case.
The Associated Press obtained 13 court hearing transcripts from the 2021 trial that show more insight into the court's negligence. Aldrich’s family stopped cooperating, and the court stopped efforts in trying to get a subpoena to testify about Aldrich’s grandmother. There were other potential witnesses listed in the documents, but there was minimal discussion from prosecutors to get them on the witness stand. Aldrich has been charged for the club shooting, but he served no time for his past crimes, and according to the records available, he got no additional treatment or mental health resources for the past incident.
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