Judge warned of Colorado gay bar attacker’s shootout plans in 2021
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A judge dismissed the 2021 kidnapping case against the Colorado gay nightclub shooter even though she had previously raised concerns about the defendant stockpiling weapons and explosives and planning a shootout, court transcripts obtained Friday by The Associated Press reveal.
Relatives, including the grandparents who claimed to have been kidnapped, had also told Judge Robin Chittum in August last year about Anderson Aldrich’s struggles with mental illness, during a hearing at which the judge said Aldrich needed treatment or “it’s going to be so bad,” according to the documents.
Yet no mention was made during Aldrich’s dismissal hearing this past July of the suspect’s violent behavior or the status of any mental health treatment.
And Judge Chittum, who received a letter late last year from relatives of Aldrich’s grandparents warning the suspect was certain to commit murder if freed, eventually granted defense attorneys’ motion to dismiss the case because a deadline was looming to bring it to trial.
The revelation that Judge Chittum regarded the defendant as a potentially serious threat adds to the advance warnings authorities are known to have had about Aldrich’s increasingly violent behavior and raise more questions about whether the recent mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs could have been prevented.
Five people were killed and 17 wounded in the Nov. 19 attack. Aldrich was charged last week with 305 criminal counts, including hate crimes and murder. Aldrich’s public defender has declined to talk about the case, and investigators have not released a motive.
Judge Chittum’s comments in Aldrich’s kidnapping case had previously been under a court seal that was lifted last week. Judge Chittum’s assistant Chad Dees said Friday that the judge declined to comment.
“You clearly have been planning for something else,” Judge Chittum told Aldrich during the August 2021 hearing, the transcripts show, after the defendant testified about an affinity for shooting firearms and a history of mental health problems.
“It didn’t have to do with your grandma and grandpa. It was saving all these firearms and trying to make this bomb, and making statements about other people being involved in some sort of shootout and a huge thing. And then that’s kind of what it turned into,” the judge said.
Aldrich — whose defense lawyers say is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns — spoke to Judge Chittum in court that day about repeated abuse as a child by their father and longtime struggles with severe PTSD and bipolar disorder.
(The vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent, studies show, and experts say most people who are violent do not have mental illnesses. Additionally, nonbinary people and advocates warn against making assumptions about people with nontraditional gender identities.)
Aldrich, who was largely raised by their grandparents, described sometimes refusing to take medications but then “getting on track” after moving to Colorado, getting a medical marijuana license and starting college, according to the transcripts.
“I also went to the (shooting range) as often as I could since the age of 16,” Aldrich testified, the transcripts show. “My mom and I would go ... sometimes multiple times a week and have fun shooting. This is a major pastime for me. Going to school, working and then relaxing at the shooting range. It was highly therapeutic for me.”
When Aldrich’s grandparents made plans to move to Florida, the suspect started drinking liquor regularly and smoking heroin leading up to a 2021 bomb threat.
The charges in that case against Aldrich — who had stockpiled explosives and allegedly spoke of plans to become the “next mass killer” before engaging in an armed standoff with SWAT teams — were thrown out during a four-minute hearing this past July at which the prosecution didn’t even argue to keep the case active.