The suspect accused of killing five and wounding at least 17 people at a Colorado LGBTQ club has been formally charged with over 300 criminal counts.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, appeared in person at a hearing in a Colorado Springs courtroom, where he was charged with murder and hate crimes.
Aldrich was already charged with murder, but prosecutors deemed it important to charge him with additional counts of ‘bias-motivated crimes’ to send a message of support to the community.
District Attorney Michael Allen did not go into details about what evidence investigators have collected so far in order to protect the case’s integrity, but did offer words of support to Colorado’s LGBTQ community.
‘We are taking this case as serious as we possibly can,’ District Attorney Michael Allen stated. ‘We are going to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law.’
He continued: ‘we are not going to tolerate actions against community members based on their sexual identity.’
Allen said that investigators were still trying to determine how many people were in the club when the attack happened. If more people were identified as patrons that night, Aldrich could face additional charges.
‘It is somewhat likely that we amend the charges in this case,’ Allen said.
He also confirmed that prosecutors will be asking the judge to deny Aldrich bail before his trial.
Aldrich was charged with a total of 305 counts, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, assault, and hate crimes. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole.
Colorado does not have the death penalty, but Aldrich could still face a death sentence if he is convicted on federal charges.
On November 19, a gunman wearing body armor and armed with an AR-15 style rifle entered Club Q in Colorado Springs and opened fire. The attack was only stopped when a club patron was able to grab the attacker’s own weapon and subdue him with it.
The five victims killed in the attack were identified as Daniel Aston, 28, Derrick Rump, 38, Ashley Paugh, 35, Kelly Loving, 40, and Raymond Green Vance, 22.
