DENVER — The shooter accused of killing five people and wounding 17 others at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs pleaded guilty Monday to charges that will warrant a life sentence.
Anthony Lee Aldrich, 23, who identifies as non-binary and wears Mx. Aldrich allegedly walked into the popular Club Q on November 19, 2022 and opened fire. The shooter is accused of 323 criminal charges including first degree murder, first degree attempted murder, first and second degree assault, and hate crimes.
The statement should close the chapter on one of the worst mass murders in Colorado history.
On the night of the shooting, the shooter first entered the club around 10:15 a.m. before walking back to the parking lot. The shooter re-entered shortly before midnight, wearing a ballistic vest and carrying an AR-15-style assault rifle, and allegedly carried out the attack.
The shooter was approached and disarmed by customers before being taken into custody by authorities.
The victims were between the ages of 22 and 40.
The shooter has since apologized for the attack. KUSA, an NBC News affiliate in Denver reported.
The massacre came 17 months after the shooter was arrested following a confrontation the suspect livestreamed with El Paso County sheriff’s deputies.
After the suspect was arrested and jailed on suspicion of multiple counts of menacing and kidnapping, prosecutors decided not to pursue the case and the records were sealed, according to KUSA.
However, the suspect’s mother had reported that her son “was threatening to harm her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons and ammunition,” the sheriff’s department said in a news release.
Army veteran Richard Fierro, who was at Club Q celebrating a birthday with his wife, daughter and friends, is one of two people who subdued the shooter.
“I just know that I went into mode and I needed to save my family, and my family was at the time everyone in that room,” he said in November.
In interviews, others who survived the shooting described the terror they felt when the suspect began firing bullets indiscriminately.
Michael Anderson, a bartender at Club Q, recalled in November hearing “some clicking noises” and initially assumed someone inside the club might have been clapping.
“Then I looked up,” he said, “and I realized that people were running.”
