This photo provided by Colorado Department of Corrections shows Anderson Aldrich. (Colorado Department of Corrections via AP)
The shooter who killed five people and wounded dozens of others in a massacre at a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub has been hit with new federal hate crime and firearm charges.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23, plans to plead guilty to 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearm violations in order to avoid the death penalty, according to court documents made public on Tuesday.
Under the agreement with prosecutors, Aldrich would instead receive multiple life sentences in addition to a 190-year sentence, if a judge approves.
Aldrich previously pleaded guilty to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder — one for each person at Club Q during the attack on Nov. 19, 2022 in Colorado Springs. They also pleaded no contest to two hate crimes, one a felony and the other a misdemeanor. Aldrich was sentenced to life in prison is June 2023.
Armed with an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon, Aldrich opened fire at patrons and staff at the popular Colorado Springs nightclub. The attack was stopped by a Naval officer and Army veteran who intervened.
Officials later learned that Aldrich, who’s nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, was forced to go to LGBTQ clubs by their mother, who is also nonbinary. They also ran a neo-Nazi website and used racist and homopbobic slurs while playing video games online. However, Aldrich hasn’t said why they were at the club, left and then returned dressed in body armor before they started shooting.
In a series of phone calls from behind bars, Aldrich told The Associated Press they were on a “very large plethora of drugs” and abusing steroids at the time of the attack. They added it was “completely off base” to say they were motivated by hate.
Prosecutors have argued that Aldrich never identified as nonbinary before the shooting and is only doing so to avoid hate crime charges.
Jeff Aston, whose son Daniel Aston was killed in the attack, called the massacre a “hateful, stupid, heinous and cowardly act,” per The AP, adding that he would like to see Aldrich “suffer as much as the suffering caused for so many victims and family members.”