Police investigating a 22-year-old gunman’s rampage through a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub said Sunday they were probing the suspect’s ties to an earlier confrontation that included a bomb threat that prompted a partial evacuation of a suburban neighborhood.
Details about the gunman were initially sparse. Colorado Springs police would not comment officially on whether the suspected shooter was the same individual charged with multiple counts of kidnapping and felony menacing after the bomb-threat incident in southeastern Colorado Springs on June 18, 2021. But the man taken into custody at that time had the same name and age as the Club Q shooter. A federal law-enforcement official on Sunday confirmed that the Club Q gunman’s birth date matched that of the bomb-threat suspect.
The Colorado Springs district attorney’s office ultimately declined to bring formal charges in the wake of the 2021 bomb-threat incident, and the court records for the case were placed under seal, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
The link between the two incidents, if confirmed, is likely to raise questions over whether law-enforcement officials were aware of warning signs that might have resulted in legal action to bar the suspect from gaining access to weapons.
Neither local police nor FBI investigators were willing to discuss a possible motive for the shooting on Sunday. A statement by Colorado Springs police said that “multiple” firearms were found at the scene, and an effort was underway to identify who owned the weapons. “The suspect used a long rifle during the shooting,” the statement said. No further details were provided as to how the gun was obtained.
Club Q patrons and employees said they believed the shooting was a hate crime. Far-right extremist groups did the same, with some celebrating the killings in blogs and internet chatrooms.
On one channel used by neo-Nazi groups, postings showered praise on the gunman and called for more killings of gays and lesbians, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a private organization that monitors extremist groups’ online activity. “I hope God welcomes this guy with open arms,” one anonymous poster wrote. “Good shot, mate,” wrote another.
Patrons described a chaotic scene in the club as the man opened fire just before midnight, on a busy Saturday evening that featured dance performances. One witness told of hearing at least two bursts of gunfire, and described a desperate scramble for shelter as customers tried to flee.
The nightclub, well known within Colorado Springs’ LGTBQ community, is located about 15 miles from the city’s Lorson Ranch community, a southeastern suburb of modest single-family homes where the 2021 bomb-threat incident took place. That day’s events were chronicled in an El Paso County Sheriff’s Department news release that included a description of the arrest of a then-21-year-old man named Anderson Lee Aldrich.
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End of carouselWhen is something a mass killing?
The Washington Post uses the term mass killing to describe any event in which four or more people, excluding the shooter, are killed by gunfire.
The Post generally only uses the term mass shooting when we’re citing an organization such as the Gun Violence Archive whose definition differs from ours. The GVA defines a mass shooting as an event in which four or more people, excluding the shooter, are injured or killed by gunfire, including events with no fatalities.
Are these events becoming more common?
In 2022, there were 647 mass shootings (here are the events in 2023 so far.). In 2021, 2020 and 2019, there were 690, 610 and 417, respectively. Before that, the Gun Violence Archive tracked fewer than 400 a year since 2014. Most gun deaths continue to be from suicides and homicides, with men making up the majority of both perpetrators and victims.
How to stay safe in a mass shooting
Every situation is different, but experts advise that you try to stay down, small and out of sight; move away from the gunfire as quickly as is safe; and hide behind a wall if possible.
Where to find support
News of mass killings can be upsetting, especially if you are dealing with violence-related trauma. But help is available. You can call or text 988 for the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline if you’re experiencing any kind of crisis (it’s not only for suicidal thoughts). Here are more resources.
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Public records link Aldrich to several different addresses in Colorado and Texas, most recently in Colorado Springs. He was listed as a registered voter and, as of 2020, a college student.
According to the news release, a woman — believed to be Aldrich’s mother — called the authorities to report that her son was threatening her with a homemade bomb and other weapons. Sheriff’s deputies were called to a single-story brick-and-siding house in the 9800 block of Rubicon Drive, the scene of the reported bomb threat. Public records show that Aldrich at the time lived on the block, at 9815 Rubicon Dr.
Deputies arriving at the scene ordered a partial evacuation of the neighborhood and then confronted Aldrich at another house, about a mile away.
There, Aldrich at first refused to surrender. But after a standoff, he was persuaded to walk out of the house, and was arrested without incident. No bomb was found, but Aldrich was charged with five felony counts, including kidnapping and felony menacing.
Why local prosecutors declined to pursue charges in the case was not clear.
Also unclear was whether any petitions had been filed against Aldrich preventing him from possessing a firearm. Colorado’s 2019 “red flag” law gives local judges the authority to order the confiscation of firearms from individuals with a history of mental illness or violence.
As of Sept. 28, there have been 348 “red flag” cases in Colorado, the majority filed by police departments, since the law went into effect in 2020. The Colorado Springs Police Department has filed two petitions in that time.
In this gun-saturated community, more than 7,000 firearms have been stolen since 2017, according to police department data — more than 20 times the national rate of firearm thefts, according to Department of Justice statistics. One of those stolen guns was used to shoot a Colorado Springs officer in the head in 2018. He survived.
Perry Stein and Cate Brown contributed to this report.