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CHILLING photos show Colorado gay club shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich moments before they killed 5 people

A judge released the photos along with previously sealed documents related to Anderson Lee Aldrich's 2021 bomb threat charges, which were later dropped
UPDATED DEC 9, 2022
Anderson Lee Aldrich (R) was seen leaving their car with an AR-15 assault rifle in the Club Q parking lot at 11.55 pm on November 19 (Colorado Judicial Branch and Colorado Springs Police Department)
Anderson Lee Aldrich (R) was seen leaving their car with an AR-15 assault rifle in the Club Q parking lot at 11.55 pm on November 19 (Colorado Judicial Branch and Colorado Springs Police Department)

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO: Chilling surveillance photos showed the Colorado gay club shooter just moments before they claimed the lives of five people and injured 25. In the pictures, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who is non-binary and uses they/them to identify themself, were seen leaving their car with an AR-15 assault rifle in the Club Q parking lot at 11.55 pm on November 19, 2022.

According to the Daily Mail, an El Paso County judge released the photos, along with previously sealed documents related to Aldrich's 2021 bomb threat charges, which were dropped after their family refused to cooperate. Aldrich can be seen with the gun raised as they prepare to enter the club in the black and white photos, just minutes before they shot two people. They then continued the shooting rampage inside the club until they were tackled by two patrons to the floor at 12:02 am. Club Q owner Matthew Haynes released the footage from the parking lot to investigators. The original videos captured in Haynes' surveillance footage contain audio. Although the footage of inside the club was also taken, it has not been released yet. 

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Aldrich was previously arrested in June 2021 on allegations of making a bomb threat, according to other documents released by the judge. The incident led to the evacuation of about 10 homes. According to the documents, Aldrich boasted of having bomb-making materials, ammunition, and multiple weapons and threatened to harm family members. 



 

Over the summer, Aldrich's statements in the case were dropped but it has raised questions about why authorities failed to seize the suspect's guns under Colorado's "red flag" law.

Judge Robin Chittum said the "profound" public interest in the case outweighed Aldrich's privacy rights. The judge added that scrutiny of judicial cases is "foundational to our system of government". "The only way for that scrutiny to occur is for this to be unsealed," she said, according to Daily Mail. 



 

Although Aldrich was booked into jail on suspicion of felony menacing and kidnapping, the case was later dropped. After news organizations sought to unseal the records, the judge ordered to release of the documents. The papers detail how Aldrich told their frightened grandparents about firearms and bomb-making material they kept in their basement and vowed not to let them interfere with Aldrich's plans to be "the next mass killer" and "go out in a blaze."

Aldrich then pointed a Glock handgun at their grandparents as the old couple begged for their lives and said, "You guys die today... I´m loaded and ready."

The grandparents called 911 after they fled for their lives. They alarmed the authorities about the fear of a possible bomb blast which prompted the evacuation of nearby homes.

Aldrich was then in a standoff with SWAT teams, and threatened them that they had armor-piercing rounds and a determination to "go to the end." Aldrich eventually came out barefoot with their hands raised and surrendered. 

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