(Leslie Bowman)
Authorities revealed formal charges Tuesday totaling 305 counts against the alleged perpetrator of the November mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LBGT club, according to CNN.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, allegedly shot and killed five people, hurting many others at Club Q. During a Tuesday court hearing, District Attorney Michael Allen announced formal charges against him, including murder, attempted murder, assault, and bias-motivated offenses.
Aldrich would be mandatorily sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder, according to Reuters. Colorado abolished the death penalty in 2020.
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The Colorado Springs Police Department praised civilians Richard Fierro and Thomas James Monday on Twitter for intervening in the shooting.
Fierro, a combat veteran who was at the venue with his wife, daughter, and friends, told The New York Times that he charged over to the gunman after the shooting began, tackled him, and beat him with the gunman’s weapon.
Aldrich was arrested in June 2021 after his mother claimed he threatened her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons and ammunition, an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office press release said.
Formal charges were not pursued in that case, The Gazette reported.
Colorado Springs District Attorney Michael Allen failed to pursue formal charges against Aldrich last year after the man allegedly threatened to bomb his mother, as The Free Press reported in November.
Allen’s office refused to answer why charges were not filed and claimed: “a public criminal record does not exist.”
His mother had called authorities on June 18, 2021, accusing her son of threatening to harm her with a homemade bomb multiple weapons, and ammunition, according to an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office press release, but Allen did not pursue formal charges in that case, according to The Gazette.
Deputy District Attorney Brent Nelson told the outlet that “a public criminal record does not exist.”
Colorado’s privacy laws prevent authorities from acknowledging the existence of a sealed record. ABC News and other outlets have requested that the court unseal the records regarding Aldrich’s 2021 arrest.
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“Upon an inquiry into a sealed record, a criminal justice agency shall reply that a public criminal record does not exist with respect to the defendant who is the subject of the sealed record,” the law reads.
Police contacted Aldrich by phone after his mother’s report and discovering his location on a different street, but he refused to surrender, the release said.
Authorities evacuated about 10 homes in the area, ultimately convincing him to obey and apprehending him less than five hours after his mother’s report.
Anderson Lee Aldrich asked The Gazette’s report on that case to be taken off its website in August. “There is absolutely nothing there, the case was dropped, and I’m asking you either remove or update the story,” he stated in a voice message to the outlet.
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