Prosecutors make case for pre-meditated attack on Club Q

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COLORADO SPRINGS | Before killing five people and wounding over a dozen others at a gay nightclub, Anderson Lee Aldrich visited at least six previous times, drew a map showing the layout of the club and appeared to be planning to livestream the attack using a mobile phone duct taped to a baseball hat found in their SUV, according to investigators.

Through testimony from police during a court hearing expected to wrap up Thursday, prosecutors have been making a case for a pre-meditated attack on Club Q last year that was inspired by a “neo-Nazi white supremacist” shooting training video as they try to convince a judge that there is enough evidence to put Aldrich, 22, on trial for over 300 charges including murder and bias-motivated crimes.

But on the first day of the hearing Wednesday, Aldrich’s lawyers countered with a picture of a suspect under the influence of drugs and forced by their troubled and sometimes abusive mother to go to LGBTQ clubs and as someone who has expressed remorse for the November shooting. The defense also brought up Aldrich’s mental health for the first time, showing photographs of pill bottles for drugs that Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they and them, had been prescribed to treat mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and PTSD. But defense attorney Joseph Archambault didn’t say if Aldrich had been formally diagnosed with any of those mental illnesses.

At this stage, Judge Michael McHenry must only decide whether prosecutors have shown during this week’s hearing that there is probable cause that Aldrich committed the crimes they are charged with in order for the case to move ahead to a trial. At a trial, prosecutors are held to a higher standard and must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to convince jurors to convict defendants.

Unlike other crimes, hate crime charges require prosecutors to present evidence of a motive — that Aldrich was driven by bias, either wholly or in part.

Although Aldrich identifies as nonbinary, someone who is a member of a protected group such as the LGBTQ community can still be charged with a hate crime for targeting peers. Hate crime laws are focused on the victims, not the perpetrator.

The lead detective in the shooting, Rebecca Joines, testified that Aldrich posted the neo-Nazi video, which featured attacks on synagogues and mosques abroad, including on two mosques in New Zealand in 2019, on a website they either created or administered. Joines said Aldrich had not created the video, which has been posted by many others online, but said she believed they were seeking to emulate it with the attack on the club.

Aldrich also shared an image of a rifle scope trained on a gay pride parade and often used an anti-gay slur, according to two online acquaintances interviewed by investigators, Joines said.

At Aldrich’s apartment, investigators found gun-making materials, receipts for weapons and a drawing of the club. In Aldrich’s mother’s room, they found round gun range targets with holes in them, Gasper said. Voepel had taken Aldrich to the range.

It was also revealed that the rifle and the handgun used in the attack appeared to be ghost guns, or firearms without serial numbers that are homemade and do not require an owner to pass a background check. One part of the handgun did have a serial number, but the overall weapon was likely not purchased whole and appeared to be privately made, Joines said.

Defense attorney Joseph Archambault pointed out that it is not illegal to make a gun.

Questions remain about how the suspect got the guns, but experts say that doesn’t have to be discussed in order to persuade the judge to rule that there’s enough evidence for a trial.

Questions were raised early on about whether authorities should have sought a red flag order to stop Aldrich from buying guns after Aldrich was arrested in 2021, when they threatened their grandparents and vowed to become the “next mass killer,” according to law enforcement documents.

Authorities said two guns seized from Aldrich in that case — a ghost gun pistol and an MM 15 rifle — weren’t returned. That case was dropped, in part because prosecutors couldn’t track down Aldrich’s grandparents and mother to testify, so Aldrich had no legal restrictions on buying guns.

Defense attorneys also brought up Aldrich’s mental health for the first time at the hearing, showing photographs of pill bottles for drugs that Aldrich had been prescribed to treat mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and PTSD. But the defense didn’t say if Aldrich had been formally diagnosed with any of those mental illnesses.