OFFICIALS SEEK MOTIVE IN COLORADO SHOOTING
Authorities, community search for answers after deadly rampage
A day after the 22-year-old man who allegedly opened fire inside a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub was preliminarily charged with murder and hate crimes, investigators continued seeking a motive Tuesday.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, weardued, ing camouflage and a bulletproof vest, entered Club Q late Saturday night armed with a handgun and an assault-style rifle. Within minutes, police say, he had killed five people and wounded 18 others, until he was subdued by a club patron who tackled him. Several other customers then pinned the gunman to the ground until authorities arrived.
The city’s hospitals continued caring for many of the wounded on Tuesday. A spokesperson for UC Health said that Aldrich, injured as he was subwas discharged from the hospital Tuesday and taken into police custody.
The city and much of the state, the site of several recent mass shootings, grieved for those who died and for the tragic shadow now cast over a cultural landmark, where many people found comfort in a city once known as staunchly opposed to LGBTQ rights.
“I will be uncomfortable going anywhere for a long time,” said a survivor of the shooting who asked to be identified only by his first name, Anthony, for fear he would be targeted. “Is it fair? ... Or is it not? But for my mentality, I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t feel safe being around or with strangers.”
Anthony, who was accompanied by his husband and partner of 14 years, said Club Q was “his home” and a place he and others in Colorado Springs considered their “safe space.”Anthony said he was standing near the front of the club when the gunman walked in and started firing from about 20 feet away.
“I never imagined anything
like this,” said Anthony, who is in his 40s and spoke from a wheelchair at Centura Penrose Hospital. “Because I had a lot of hope and pride in Club Q. That was like family, and that is what they always stated — ‘This is your home. This is your safe space.’”
A makeshift altar near the club expanded overnight, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ordered flags flown at half-staff to memorialize the dead. Four years ago, Polis was elected the country’s first openly gay governor. He was born and raised in Boulder, where in March 2021 a shooter opened fire inside a King Soopers grocery store, killing 10 people.
A 25-foot pride flag will be raised this morning in front of Colorado Springs City Hall.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden spoke with families of the victims, according to White House officials, who also reiterated the administration’s commitment to restoring a ban on assault-style rifles such as the one in Aldrich’s possession.
“While we don’t know yet for certain the motive of this attack, hate has no place in this country, and neither do military-style assault rifles,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters during a Tuesday briefing. “Weapons of war do not belong on our streets, in our churches, in our movie theaters, in our malls, in our groceries, in our schools or in our nightclubs.”
The investigation is in its earliest stages and appears to be focused on how the gunman obtained the assault rifle and why he opened fire. Colorado Springs officials on Tuesday said they would not be commenting further on the case until next week, citing the judicial process now under way.
The suspect faces five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, city spokesperson Max D’Onofrio said. He said those were the arrest charges; prosecutors are expected to file criminal charges in court.
Aldrich’s first court appearance is scheduled for this morning. Court records indicate it will be a video hearing. Michael Allen, the district attorney, said Aldrich was being held without bond in the El Paso County jail.
Public records show that until age 15, Aldrich was known as Nicholas Brink and was living in San Antonio. His parents separated when he was a toddler, and when he was 12, his mother, Laura Voepel, was arrested for suspected arson, according to court documents. She was later found guilty of a lesser offense in connection with the same incident. Voepel is the daughter of Assemblymember Randy Voepel, R-Santee.
At age 15, Aldrich became the target of a particularly vicious bout of online bullying in which insulting accusations were posted to a website, along with his name, photos and online aliases, according to a review of the site by The Washington Post. At some point, a YouTube account was created under his name, featuring a crude, profanity-laden animation under the title “Asian homosexual gets molested.”
For unstated reasons, just before his 16th birthday, the young man petitioned a Texas court — with two of his grandparents’ names on the document — to legally change his entire name. His mother’s name did not appear on the petition.
Whether the events of Aldrich’s childhood had any bearing on Saturday’s horrific violence at Club Q is unknown.
In June 2021, Aldrich was arrested for an alleged bomb threat, one that prompted a partial evacuation of the Colorado Springs neighborhood where his mother lived at the time. He was charged with kidnapping and felony menacing but was never prosecuted, for reasons that remain unclear. No bomb was ever found.
Despite his run-in with the law, some 17 months later, Aldrich was in possession of at least one weapon, a long gun, which he allegedly used in targeting customers and employees inside a nightclub long seen as a haven for the city’s LGBTQ community.
In 2019, Colorado’s legislature passed a red-flag law, which gave citizens and police departments the ability to petition a judge to have a Colorado resident’s weapons confiscated if the petitioner demonstrates that person is a danger to themselves or others.
New details about Aldrich’s 2021 incident emerged on Monday, shedding light on his disturbing behavior at the time. A video obtained by CNN appeared to show moments from a standoff between Aldrich and sheriff’s deputies who responded to reports of a bomb threat.
Leslie Bowman, who owns the home where the standoff took place and where Aldrich’s mother had been renting a room at the time, said she made a copy of the video, which has since been deleted from socialmedia platforms.
The brief video reportedly shows a few seconds of an agitated young man — identified by Bowman as Aldrich — wearing a helmet and some type of body armor, and challenging law enforcement to breach the house where he had holed up. The video does not actually show any officers outside the house, and it’s not clear from the recording whether Aldrich had any weapons inside.
Little is known about what led to the confrontation. But records from Aldrich’s past as Nicholas Brink offer some insight into his formative years.
Brink was born in 2000 as the only son of Aaron and Laura (nee Voepel) Brink, of Orange, Calif., and a year later, in July 2001, the couple separated. Their divorce was finalized in September 2001, court records showed.
The family was living in San Antonio at the time of Laura Voepel’s arrest on arson-related charges in 2012. The case wound its way through a Texas court for several years, and according to court records, the defendant was ordered to undergo psychological evaluations and mandatory drug testing. Her trial resulted in the dismissal of the arson charge but she was found guilty on a lesser charge of criminal mischief.
The YouTube account under Brink’s name was opened in 2010, with a note to viewers of the channel that read, “wazzap guys, please help and subscribe.” The crude animation with the “Asian homosexual” label was added in 2012. The video received more than 300 views.
The online bullying incident that targeted Brink included photos of the then-15-year-old youth posted to a Wikipedia-like website, along with a fictitious biography riddled with insults and ridicule.
Months later, on April 28, 2016, a petition was filed in a Bexar County, Texas, court requesting a legal name change for the young man. The formal order, issued a week later, appeared under the simple heading: “Nicholas F. Brink to Anderson L. Aldrich.”