Colorado Springs nightclub shooting
On November 19–20, 2022, an anti-LGBT-motivated mass shooting occurred at Club Q, a gay bar in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. Five people were murdered, and 25 others were injured, 19 of them by gunfire. The shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, was also injured while being restrained, and was taken to a local hospital.[10][11][12][13] Aldrich was then charged and remanded in custody. On June 26, 2023, Aldrich pled guilty to the shooting and state level charges and was officially sentenced to a total of five consecutive back-to-back life terms plus an additional consecutive 2,211 years all of it without the possibility of parole. On January 16, 2024, Aldrich was additionally charged with 50 federal hate crimes in connection with the shooting.[14][15] On June 18, 2024, Aldrich pleaded guilty to the federal charges and was sentenced to 55 concurrent life sentences without parole plus 190 years.[16]
For other shootings in Colorado Springs, see Colorado Springs shooting.Club Q nightclub shooting
Club Q, Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.
Patrons of Club Q
5
26 (including the perpetrator; 19 by gunfire)
- Richard M. Fierro
- Thomas James
Federal
- 74 counts of hate crime and weapons charges
Colorado
- First-degree murder (5 counts)
- Attempted first-degree murder (46 counts)
- Bias-motivated hate crimes (2 counts)
Federal
55 concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole plus 190 years
Colorado
Background[edit]
Club Q is located at the 3430 block of North Academy Boulevard and opened in 2002. It was for a time the only LGBT club in Colorado Springs, Colorado's second-most populous city with a population of just under 500,000.[17] A 2021 article by Denver-based magazine 5280 noted the club to be a place "where LGBTQ folks [went] for drag performances, dance parties, and drinks."[17][18] The shooting occurred on the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance.[19]
Since 2019, Colorado has had a red flag law that allows citizens or law enforcement to petition a court to order the removal of firearms from a potentially dangerous person. Of the 19 states and the District of Columbia with red flag laws, Colorado has among the lowest per capita rates of invocation of the law. In opposition to the Colorado statute, more than half of the state's 64 counties declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, including El Paso County where the shooting occurred.[20][21][22][23] According to the Los Angeles Blade, "It is El Paso County Sheriff's Office's explicit policy not to petition for an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) or Temporary Risk Protection Order (TRPO) to remove firearms from at-risk people".[24][25]
Shooting[edit]
According to the police chief, the shooting began when Anderson Lee Aldrich entered Club Q while a dance party was being held. Wielding an AR-15 style rifle, carrying multiple magazines of ammunition, and wearing body armor,[6][7][8][26] Aldrich immediately began firing at employees and patrons while moving further into the building. Many survivors at first mistook the gunfire for being a part of the music, until the shots continued and the occupants saw the muzzle flashes.[27] Multiple people sheltered behind the bar and in dressing rooms, while others stayed low to the ground.[28]
Minutes into the shooting, a club patron, identified as U.S. Army veteran Richard M. Fierro, charged across the room and tackled Aldrich to the ground, causing the rifle to fall out of reach. Fierro then grabbed a handgun from the shooter's hand and used it to hit the shooter repeatedly in the head. Fierro was assisted by two other patrons he recruited, including Thomas James, who moved the rifle away to safety,[29] and a trans woman who used her high heels to stomp on the shooter and helped disable and hold the shooter down until the authorities arrived.[13][30][31] Fierro estimated the shooter's weight at 300 pounds (140 kg).[30][32]
Police received an initial call for service regarding the shooting at 11:56 p.m. on November 19, with the first officer being dispatched a minute later. A total of 39 patrol officers from all four divisions of the Colorado Springs Police Department, along with 34 firefighters and 11 ambulances, responded to the scene.[1][13] The suspect was in custody within about five minutes after the first 9-1-1 call.[27] After the shooting stopped, many were at first reluctant to leave their hiding spots as they were unsure if the shooter was reloading or had been stopped.[28] Fierro, who had been covered in blood, was placed in police custody in a squad car for over an hour before he was cleared of suspicion and released.[30]
The injured were transported to three hospitals: seven to Penrose Hospital, 10 to Memorial Hospital Central, and two to Memorial Hospital North. Some ambulances, with most of them AMR, had to transport up to three patients at a time, and a few police cruisers had to transport victims as well.[1]
Aftermath[edit]
A vigil was held on November 20 with standing room only at the All Souls Unitarian Church, which was also attended by several members of the City Council.[27]
Additional memorials and events were held throughout the week, which promoted spaces for people to gather and donate.[36]
Donation drives were set up shortly after the shooting from both local organizations and GoFundMe fundraisers for the victims and their families.[37]
On November 24, Colorado Springs evangelical ministry Focus on the Family was targeted with a graffiti message, reading: "Their blood is on your hands. Five lives taken."[38][39][40]
Anderson Lee Aldrich
Incarcerated at Wyoming State Penitentiary
Aaron Brink (father)
Laura Voepel (mother)
Randy Voepel (grandfather)
5 consecutive back-to-back life sentences without the possibility of parole plus an additional 2,211 years
Legal proceedings[edit]
After the shooting, Aldrich was charged with ten felony counts: five counts of murder, and five counts of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury. An El Paso County judge authorized the sealing of Aldrich's prior arrest records, saying the public release of the documents could "jeopardize the ongoing investigation."[71] Aldrich was represented by a public defender.[72]
On December 6, Aldrich was charged with 305 criminal counts, which included first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault of the first and second degree, and hate crimes. District Attorney Michael Allen said it was "probably the most charges that we’ve ever filed in a single case, on a murder case like this in the state of Colorado".[73] On December 8, a judge ordered the unsealing of court documents pertaining to Aldrich's June 2021 arrest.[65][74]
On January 13, 2023, Aldrich was charged with new felony offenses for attempted murder and hate crimes. The additional twelve charges raised the total number of criminal counts to 317.[75][76]
On June 26, Aldrich pleaded guilty to the shooting and was formally sentenced to a total of five consecutive life terms plus an additional 2,211 years in prison, all without any possibility of parole.[77]
On June 18, 2024, Aldrich pleaded guilty to the federal charges and was sentenced to 55 life terms in prison.[16]
Responses and Reactions[edit]
The shooting was condemned by politicians in the immediate aftermath. The United States President Joe Biden said, "While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years."[78]
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that anti-LGBT political discourse is partially to blame for the shooting.[79]
The El Paso County government said "We are deeply saddened by the senseless shooting that occurred early this morning in Colorado Springs at Club Q" and they sent their condolences and support to the victims and families.[80]
Colorado's red flag law and its application were scrutinized by advocates of gun violence prevention, politicians, and many other people.[20][22][23][81][82]
Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who is also Colorado and the nation's first openly gay governor, said "We are eternally grateful for the brave individuals who blocked the [shooter] likely saving lives in the process"[19] and called for an examination of the application of Colorado's red flag law by Colorado's sheriffs.[83][84]
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said law enforcement should've taken advantage of the law under appropriate circumstances, while cautioning against jumping to conclusions about the application of the law to the shooting.[20][22]
Colorado state representative Tom Sullivan, whose son (Alex Sullivan), was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting and sponsor of the state's red flag law said the prior incident should have alerted the community.[20][64][82]
Jeffrey Swanson, a professor at Duke University School of Medicine who studies red flag laws, said Colorado's law could have been invoked.[20][81]
LGBTQ+ groups have widely memorialized the victims, and linked the mass shooting to recent rhetoric.[85][86][87]
Club Q said on social media that it was "devastated by the senseless attack on our community" and that it offered condolences to the victims and their families.[19]
The co-owners of Club Q attributed the shooting to a different kind of anti-LGBT hatred,[88] inflamed by some Republican politicians and right-wing influencers[89][90] and rooted in the demonization of drag queens as "groomers".[88][91][92]
Democrats have also been criticized by some for historically not doing enough to counteract anti-trans narratives, and generally being reluctant to proactively defend the transgender community.[91]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement condemning the shooting. The statement read, in part, "The senseless act of violence in Colorado Springs is of great sadness and concern to us. We are greatly troubled by any violence in our communities and condemn most especially violent acts that are the result of intolerance..."[93]
In their responses to the shooting, several far-right media pundits have promoted an Anti-LGBT grooming conspiracy theory,[94][95][96][97] as well as perpetuating moral panic.[98][99][100][101]
Conservative media personality and political commentator Tucker Carlson displayed a banner on his Fox News program Tucker Carlson Tonight that read "Stop Sexualizing Kids" while later hosting a guest who said that mass shootings would keep happening "until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children".[102]
YouTube political commentator and podcast host Tim Pool responded by criticizing the venue's drag show performances, saying, "We shouldn't tolerate pedophiles grooming kids. Club Q had a grooming event";[103] while other right-wing and conservative political commentators such as Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Chaya Raichik, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene all continued to publish content targeting LGBT people, some of which focused specifically on the Colorado area.[104][102][105][95]
After issuing a statement in which she offered her prayers to those affected by the shooting and called for the lawless violence to end, Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was accused of hypocrisy based on her history of anti-LGBT rhetoric.[106] Her past comments have included false grooming narratives and the litter boxes in schools hoax.[86][107] She has been criticized for blocking gun control laws.[108][109]
Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, was criticized for saying that the five people killed during the shooting were "now reaping the consequences of ... eternal damnation" because she claimed that there was "no evidence" the victims were Christian.[110][111][112]
Far-right provocateurs, including Jack Posobiec, questioned Richard Fierro's presence at the drag show, while others on the far-right called Fierro a "groomer" and a "faggot" simply because he and his family were at Club Q.[113][114] Analysis published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue has estimated that online usage of the terms 'pedophile' and 'groomer' increased sharply in the days following the shooting, as part of far-right and neo-Nazi celebration of, and apologia for, the mass shooting.[112]
The Department of Homeland Security also reported in a bulletin published on November 30 that online extremists praised the actions of the shooter.[115] A significant rise in homophobic and transphobic posts following the shooting have been tracked by LGBTQIA+ advocates both in far-right forums such as Gab and even in more mainstream social media platforms such as Twitter (now known as X), Facebook, and YouTube.[116]
On December 14, 2022, several survivors of the mass shooting presented their testimony to the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The witnesses placed blame for the attack on hateful rhetoric, calling it the direct cause of the shooting, and also warned of the dangers of hate speech, saying that it is damaging even in the absence of explicit calls for violence.
At the hearing, Club Q owner Matthew Haynes pushed back at Republican politicians, saying "I know that we, our Club Q community, are in the thoughts and prayers of so many of you. Unfortunately these thoughts and prayers alone are not saving lives. They're not changing the rhetoric of hate." Haynes also read aloud examples from some of the hundreds of the hateful messages received following the shooting, including one that said "the shooter was doing God's work".
Survivor James Slaugh said that LGBTQ+ issues should not be politicized, and urged respect for basic human rights: "Outside of these spaces, we are continually being dehumanized, marginalized and targeted. The fear-based and hateful rhetoric surrounding the LGBTQ+ community, especially around trans individuals and drag performers, leads to violence."[90][117]