Club Q shooting suspect’s violent tendencies known to FBI months before Colorado Springs massacre

The FBI were previously alerted to the person alleged to have killed five people in a shooting at Colorado Springs gay nightclub Club Q last month, it has been revealed.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, who lawyers say uses they/them pronouns, has been charged with 305 criminal counts, including five counts of first-degree murder and multiple hate crime charges.

They are accused of opening fire in Club Q on 19 November – killing two bartenders and three patrons, with at least 25 others injured.

Aldrich was eventually pinned to the ground by patrons and arrested once police arrived. 

The shooting was not Anderson Lee Aldrich’s first run-in with authorities, having been arrested on 18 June 2021 on allegations of making a bomb threat against family members that led to an estimated 10 homes being evacuated.

The case was eventually dropped for reasons that were originally unknown because of Colorado laws that automatically seal dismissed cases to prevent making people’s lives difficult if they aren’t prosecuted.

Ahead of a hearing on Thursday (8 December) to unseal the records, authorities disclosed to the The Associated Press in a statement that Aldrich was alerted as a potential danger the day before their June 2021 arrest.

The FBI closed its assessment of Anderson Lee Aldrich about a month later – before the case was closed.

AP reports that the 2021 case documents were unsealed at Thursday’s court hearing, showing the case was dropped because family members terrorised in the incident refused to cooperate.

Although the family refused to cooperate, authorities had found a “tub” full of bomb-making chemicals, according to the documents.

The unsealed case also shows authorities later received warnings from relatives that Aldrich was sure to hurt or murder a set of their grandparents if freed.

An arrest affidavit written the day after the Club Q shooting that was also unsealed this week does not provide any new information about Aldrich’s motivations, according to AP.

However, it does say they expressed remorse to medical staff shortly after the shooting and said they had been awake for four days.