A police report about the mass shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs unsealed Wednesday reveals that the attack was captured on surveillance video and the suspect apologized afterward.
Police officers overheard Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, “tell medical staff he was sorry and he had been awake for four days,” according to a five-page arrest affidavit authored by a Colorado Springs police detective and made public Wednesday evening.
Aldrich was charged Tuesday with 305 crimes, including first-degree murder and hate crimes, in connection with the Nov. 19 mass shooting at Club Q that killed five people and injured 22, 17 by gunfire.
The attack was captured by the club’s surveillance video cameras, which police say showed Aldrich arriving at the club at 11:55 p.m. carrying an “AR-15-style assault rifle” and wearing a “ballistic vest,” according to the affidavit.
Aldrich is then seen entering the club and opening fire “indiscriminately” on customers, according to the affidavit. A survivor said Aldrich was dressed in dark clothing and what appeared to be body armor, and said the shooter was “spraying” bullets and seemed to initially have trouble controlling the large gun.
Within minutes, an Army veteran who’d been enjoying a drag show and other club customers tackled Aldrich, disarmed the shooter and beat the suspect into submission. The veteran, Richard Fierro, has told reporters he pulled the shooter to the ground; he told police he saw someone else pull the shooter down and then he jumped on top of the shooter as well, according to the affidavit.
Aldrich was arrested at 12:02 a.m., according to the affidavit.
The police complaint against Aldrich was sealed after the killings and had been kept secret until El Paso County District Court Judge Michael McHenry ordered the document be made public at the end of the day Wednesday. Aldrich’s public defenders objected to the unsealing.
Aldrich is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, their public defenders wrote in court filings.
Aldrich’s mother, who was herself arrested after the shooting on charges of disorderly conduct, told officers that she’d planned to go to a movie with Aldrich that night around 10 p.m., but that her child instead left to “run an errand” and never returned.
In addition to the affidavit about the Club Q shooting, a separate 2021 criminal case against Aldrich has also been kept under seal and away from public view, though documents leaked through unofficial channels show Aldrich threatened to blow up their mother’s home and become “the next mass killer.”
The Denver Post is among a media coalition asking a judge to unseal the details of that 2021 case, in which Aldrich was initially arrested but then criminal charges were dropped and the court filings made secret. Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen has refused to explain why the 2021 case against Aldrich was not pursued, citing a 3-year-old Colorado law that prevents officials from discussing or even acknowledging the existence of sealed cases.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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