Club Q shooting suspect due in court

Judge will decide whether DA has sufficient evidence to proceed with charges

The suspect in last year’s mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs is set to appear in court Wednesday for the beginning of a three- day preliminary hearing.

Anderson Aldrich, 22, is accused of killing five people and injuring 22 others — 17 by gunfire — during the Nov. 19 attack at the LGBTQ nightclub on North Academy Boulevard. Investigators believe Aldrich drove to the club just before midnight, then walked in and opened fire on patrons and employees.

Aldrich is facing 323 criminal charges in connection with the shooting, including first- degree murder, attempted murder, assault and bias-motivated crimes.

The 22-year- old identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, Aldrich’s public defenders have said in court filings.

During the preliminar y hearing, Fourth Judicial District Judge Michael Mchenry will listen to testimony and decide whether there is enough evidence to support the charges against Aldrich. The judge could dismiss some charges or allow the case to go forward as is.

Mchenry denied repeated requests from Aldrich’s public defenders to delay the hearing. Attorneys Joseph Archambault and Michael Bowman have said they were not prepared to go forward because the defense team was “overwhelmed” by the quantity of evidence in the case — the entire attack was recorded by surveillance cameras.

Amid the voluminous materials, the defense team could not find evidence to support the bias- motivated charges against Aldrich, Archambault said.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen has declined to say exactly what led him to bring the bias- motivated charges, but said in court that conversations with Aldrich and data in Aldrich’s phone support the allegations. He previously told reporters that he would not have been able to charge the bias-motivated crimes without a recent change in state law that allow such charges when a person is motivated “in whole or in part” by bias.

Five people died in the attack: Daniel Aston, 28; Kelly Loving, 40; Ashley Paugh, 35; Derrick Rump, 38; and Raymond Green Vance, 22.

The shooter was subdued within minutes by club patrons Richard Fierro and Thomas James, who together tackled and disarmed the suspect.