Anderson Lee Aldrich pleads guilty to 53 charges for Club Q shooting

The suspect in the shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Anderson Lee Aldrich, has pleaded guilty to 53 charges, including five for first-degree murder. 

On Monday (26 June), Aldrich, who originally faced 305 criminal counts, including hate crimes and murder, pleaded guilty to five first-degree murder charges, 46 charges of attempted first-degree murder and two bias-motivated hate crimes. 

The charges relate to Aldrich, 23, who uses they/them pronouns, opening fire in the gay nightclub on 19 November 2022, killing five people and injuring more than 30 others.

Associated Press (AP) reported that Aldrich was expected to plead guilty as part of a plea deal at a hearing. 

Family members of the victims told the news outlet that the prosecution would seek a life sentence.

Should the trial have continued, family members and victims would have been subject to viewing surveillance footage of the shooting. 

Earlier this month, it was reported that Aldrich was blaming steroid use for the attack.

During previous hearings related to the shooting, detectives testified that Aldrich may have planned to livestream the attack, and that the suspect had visited a website which hosted a “neo-Nazi white supremacist” training video glorifying mass shootings.

In the days after the shooting, it was also revealed that the FBI had been alerted to Aldrich after the suspect was arrested in June 2021 on allegations of making a bomb threat against family members. The case was later dropped.

• Nov 29 2023

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