It was the first time the two men had ever spoken. They’d chosen drastically different lives since that night in 1998, and when they met on that day in October 2021, Nelson had just left prison. Roberts, by then, was working with the Denver Police Department’s victim assistance unit.

Roberts found Nelson thanks to a random Facebook post. But Roberts wanted more than just to reconnect.

If they could build a relationship, he thought, telling their story could help young people who are at risk of being drawn into gun violence to make a better decision — for reconciliation over vengeance. Nelson, for his part, wanted to show them it’s possible to leave gangs and live a productive life.

There are only two places people in gangs wind up, he said: the grave or the penitentiary.

“I want them to see that change is possible,” he said. “Everybody is scared of change, but you have to do it if you want to go forward in the world.”

On Monday, the two men stood in front of a group of teenagers and, for the first time publicly, share their story. Their message comes as an increasing number of young people die in gun homicides every year. Fifteen teenagers were shot and killed in Denver in 2022 — nearly double the number of teens killed in 2019, when the mayor called youth gun violence an epidemic and convened city leaders to address the problem.

Roberts could have become a statistic like that. Or he could have sought out Nelson for revenge. Instead, he found his way to forgiveness.

“He’s like my brother now,” Roberts said.

Two lives collide in “chaos” of fighting at a party

Both men grew up in Denver in the 1990s, when a wave of gun violence bloodied the city’s streets. Roberts graduated from Overland High School in Aurora, and Nelson, three years younger, attended Denver’s East and South high schools. They didn’t know each other.

On Sept. 11, 1998, their lives intersected.

Nelson, 16 at the time, was invited to a party in Northeast Park Hill. He and his friends were looking for another teen they’d been having problems with — and he was on edge wondering if he’d see him there.

He brought a gun.

When someone at the party played a song about gang life, everyone started throwing their gang signs, Nelson said. Fights broke out and spilled outside.

“It was chaos — period,” Nelson said.

Roberts, then 19, arrived outside shortly before the violence erupted. He was dropping off a friend’s brother at the party. Immediately, he felt like they shouldn’t be there.

He got out of his car to say hi to a few people he recognized when he saw someone he knew, a basketball teammate at East High, about to get into a fight.

Roberts made his way through the crowd to break up the fighting.

As he weaved through the fights, someone hit him and he fell to the ground. He looked up and saw someone walking away. Assuming it was the person who hit him, he stood up, grabbed the man and took him to the ground.

The man Roberts tackled was Nelson, who thought he was about to get jumped.

Nelson fired two shots.

Roberts didn’t realize he’d been hit until he looked at his abdomen. He saw his shirt smoking. He felt the wound with his hand, stuck a finger inside.

“It felt like everything slowed down — time stopped — and then it was complete chaos again,” he recalled.

He asked a friend to help him over to some bushes. If he was going to die, he didn’t want to die in the street.

Instead, police and paramedics arrived and scooped him into an ambulance. He woke up the next morning in the hospital, his mom sitting by his bed. The bullet had pierced his colon.

Despite detectives’ insistence, Roberts couldn’t identify who shot him. He’d never seen Nelson before.

Roberts didn’t even recognize Nelson the next time they saw each other — in the downtown Denver courthouse, when Nelson was to be sentenced for shooting him. Before the hearing, they crossed paths in the bathroom.

“I remember thinking, ‘I wonder what he did?’ ” Roberts said.

It wasn’t until his case was called that Roberts realized the man in the bathroom was the same person who’d shot him. The judge sentenced Nelson to a boot camp program for teens and gave him a six-year suspended prison sentence.

But Nelson struggled to escape the gang life that surrounded him growing up. He spent most of the next two decades in and out of prison, with convictions that included burglary and attempting to escape. All told, 15 years locked up.

He said he realized during his most recent stint in prison that he was just spinning his wheels.

“I got tired of just living my life revolving around what other people think and other people believe,” he said. “I just woke up one day, and that was it. I gave everything up. I couldn’t do it anymore.”

Nelson was paroled and released from prison on Sept. 21, 2021.

“Tired of being angry,” Roberts forgives Nelson

Recovery from the shooting wasn’t easy for Roberts. For three months after Nelson shot him, he walked with a cane. He lost significant weight because the injury to his colon made it difficult for him to eat.

But by January 1999, he was returning to normal.

He stayed in Denver, working in human services roles in Denver Public Schools and for nonprofits. He got married and became a father. And in 2019, he joined the Denver Police Department’s Victim Assistance Unit.

As victim assistance coordinator, Roberts’ job is to build relationships with residents in the East Colfax neighborhood — one of Denver’s neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence.

Occasionally, Roberts thought about Nelson. Once, he saw him in passing at Denver’s Juneteenth celebration. But he didn’t approach.

“I always wondered what his upbringing was, where he came from,” Roberts said. “I wanted to know what he was going through in prison.”

Roberts forgave Nelson years ago, he said.

“I was tired of being angry,” Roberts said. “I had nightmares and PTSD,” or post-traumatic stress disorder. “I was tired of wondering what would happen if we did run into each other.”

Shortly after Nelson was released from prison, Roberts saw Nelson’s name tagged in a Facebook post. He reached out to their mutual connection and asked for Nelson’s phone number.

He thought that if they worked together to tell their story, they could help young people see the possibilities of forgiveness, redemption and change.

When he called, Nelson was eager to help.

“I was like, ‘Whatever you want to do, I’m on board,’ ” Nelson said.

They met for brunch with their wives. Then they kept meeting. They became friends.

Roberts, now 43, introduced Nelson to his family and told them Nelson was the person who shot him. Roberts’ daughter later came up to Nelson and told him she was proud they had become friends.

Everyone had tears in their eyes, said Nelson, 41.

“These stories of forgiveness are so profound,” Ali said. “It lets you know that change is possible. You don’t have to be stuck in a mire of hate.”

At a retreat he hosted last year, Ali asked the 20 teens gathered there how many of them had been affected by suicide or gun violence.

“Every hand went up,” he said. “Even the 13-year-olds.”

Both Nelson and Roberts exemplify uncommon strength, Ali said: Nelson turned his life around after years of street life. Roberts proved that choosing forgiveness instead of revenge can yield unexpected gifts.

On Monday, Ali is hosting another day of mental health and wellness workshops for young people, a program aimed at preventing suicide and gun violence.

Nelson and Roberts plan to be there. They’ll tell their story to the participants — the first time they’ve done so in such a setting.

“Never underestimate the power of forgiveness,” Ali said. “That’s what we want them to walk away with understanding.”

Nathan Meier was promoted to detective on Dec. 24 after testing for the post in November, department spokesman Joe Moylan said. The position pays $110,399, a $10,000 raise from his previous job.

The promotion, first reported by CBS4, comes nearly four years after Meier’s drunken-driving incident, which brought international attention to the department as well as condemnation of how the department’s leadership handled the case. The controversy marred the final months of former Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz’s tenure and prompted his second-in-command to renounce his plans to serve as interim police chief and retire instead.

Last year, Meier participated in a competitive process outlined by the Civil Service Commission, which oversees hiring, firing and promotions in the department, Moylan said.

He was required by the commission’s rules to wait two years after being demoted to try for a promotion.

Meier was armed and on duty on March 29, 2019, when he passed out while driving the unmarked department-issued car on East Mississippi Avenue near Buckley Air Force Base. The car was running and in gear with Meier’s foot on the brake.

Meier later told internal investigators that he was blackout drunk at the time.

He was demoted and suspended without pay after Metz overruled an internal investigation that recommended Meier be fired. Aurora police leaders did not pursue a criminal investigation of Meier’s drunken driving despite multiple officers on the scene reporting that they smelled alcohol on Meier and in the car.

Prosecutors said they were never alerted to the incident and expressed frustration that Aurora police failed to conduct an investigation. An external review of the incident found police leadership made “significant errors of judgment” at nearly every stage.

Former Clear Creek County Deputy Andrew Buen violated multiple agency policies and made several errors while responding to the June 11 call for help from Glass, according to a 72-page review of the incident by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office released Wednesday.

Buen also failed to de-escalate his interactions with Glass, failed to give warnings before using less-lethal force on Glass and — along with other officers on scene — failed to create space between himself and Glass after Glass picked up a knife.

“With there being no probable cause to place Mr. Glass on a (mental health hold) and state statute providing the opportunity to leave Mr. Glass sitting alone in his vehicle, any force used to remove him from the vehicle would be unreasonable and would not fall within CCCSO policy and procedure,” the review found.

Clear Creek County Sheriff Rick Albers on Nov. 3 requested the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office conduct the internal affairs investigation into Buen. The Clear Creek agency did not open an investigation itself in the aftermath of the fatal shooting.

Glass’ parents released the body camera footage of the shooting in September, prompting a criminal investigation and international media attention. Law enforcement would have swept the killing under the rug had the family not made it public and pressed for more information, Sally Glass said in an interview Thursday.

“I don’t want them to get away with this,” she said.

A grand jury in November indicted Buen and Kyle Gould, the supervisor who approved the decision to remove Glass from the vehicle. Buen is charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment, while Gould faces charges of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment.

Both men were fired from the sheriff’s office after they were indicted.

“Their independent investigation reaffirms the failure of policy and training that resulted in Mr. Buen’s termination,” the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “The detailed, unbiased investigation confirmed that Mr. Buen was not within CCCSO policy and procedures were not followed when Mr. Buen used deadly force against Mr. Christian Glass. The 72-page report painstakingly details Mr. Glass’s tragic loss of life, the excessive force against Mr. Glass, mistakes, and outright failures.”

Glass’ parents questioned why none of the other officers on scene were investigated for their involvement in their son’s death; the Douglas County probe focused on Buen. Their attorney, Siddhartha Rathod, noted that it’s a crime in Colorado for a peace officer to fail to intervene in another officer’s excessive use of force.

The officers — not Glass — created a dangerous situation, he said.

“Each and every one of these officers failed,” Rathod said.

“Not in a physical position to kill anyone”

Glass died at the scene June 11 in Silver Plume. He had called 911 for help after crashing his car on a berm while experiencing a mental health crisis. Buen and six other law enforcement officers from a variety of agencies spoke with Glass for more than an hour to try to coax him from the driver’s seat of his car before deciding to physically remove him to place him on a mental health hold.

With approval from Gould, Buen broke out the front passenger window, which prompted Glass to start to scream and pick up a knife he had in the car. Buen shocked Glass with a Taser and shot him with less-lethal bean bags when Glass failed to follow officers’ commands to drop the knife.

Glass turned in his seat and swiped the knife through the broken rear driver’s side window, where Georgetown police Marshal Randy Williams stood. Buen then fired five rounds at Glass, killing him.

The Douglas County investigation noted that Glass never made any suicidal or homicidal comments until officers started using a Taser on him and shooting him with bean bags. While being shot with bean bags and being shocked, Glass told officers that he would kill them if they didn’t stop.

“It would be reasonable to believe Mr. Glass would make extreme statements under this level of duress,” the report states.

The Douglas County investigator wrote that none of the other six officers on scene fired at Glass, even though several had a better view of Glass’ movement toward Williams. One of the officers on scene said she believed Glass could’ve only cut Williams’ hands.

“Mr. Glass was not in a physical position to kill anyone… it would have been physically improbable for him to cause any injury to Chief Williams,” the report states.

Glass wouldn’t have posed any threat to officers had Buen not broken out the window of the vehicle, the investigation states.

“Prior to the rear driver’s side passenger window being broken by a less-lethal shotgun round, Mr. Glass would have had to take significant steps to pose and imminent danger to any officer on scene,” the report states. “Up to and including retrieving his knife, exiting the vehicle, and gaining enough proximity to an officer to inflict physical harm on them.”

One of the officers, Idaho Springs police Officer Brittney Morrow, told investigators she was surprised Buen’s bullets didn’t hit Williams.

An empty chair at the table

Neither of Glass’ parents believed the first version of events published by the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office shortly after the shooting. It didn’t make sense that their gentle, empathetic son would attack police officers, but that was the only information they had. They buried their son without knowing what actually happened that day.

“We just said it was a terrible accident,” Sally Glass said.

Glass was a curious, busy child who built civilizations in the sandbox and as a toddler tried to take his sisters’ toys apart to figure out how they work. As an adult, he retained his curiosity about life, his parents said. He loved long drives in his Honda Pilot and discussing the deep questions of life.

He had a deep sense of justice and didn’t like sitting still, they said. He went to culinary school and worked 50 to 60 hours a week as a chef, but was starting to look into coding classes so he could work less and focus more on his art.

Glass would’ve turned 23 on Tuesday. Every time his dad Simon sees a maroon Honda Pilot he thinks of his son. Sally is reminded of him whenever she sees young men around his age doing the regular things he can’t do anything anymore — jogging or just having fun.

“He’s not going to get to do any of that anymore,” she said.

Glass, who is survived by two sisters, was the only grandson on either side of the family. Sally’s dad can’t handle hearing his name. She’s had to practice how to respond to questions about how many children she has — how does she explain during small talk how her son died?

“There are still five chairs around the dining room table,” Sally Glass said.

A Denver police officer will face assault charges for allegedly shooting five bystanders when he fired at a suspect in a crowded bar district in Lower Downtown last summer, a grand jury ruled Wednesday.

The grand jury indicted Officer Brandon Ramos on 14 counts, including two counts of second-degree assault, six counts of third-degree assault, one count of prohibited use of a weapon and five counts of reckless endangerment.

Ramos’ decision to open fire in the direction of a crowd was “reckless, unreasonable and unnecessary,” according to the indictment.

He was suspended without pay Wednesday after being indicted, according to the Denver Police Department. The department declined to provide further comment on the criminal charges.

“Police officers make split-second decisions under difficult circumstances on a daily basis, and those decisions are rooted in keeping people safe,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement. “While the situation remains an unfortunate one, and it’s regrettable that innocent bystanders were injured, I’m surprised to see that the grand jury found the officer’s actions involved criminal intent.”

The president of Denver’s police union defended Ramos at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, saying the officer’s indictment was without merit.

“To charge this officer with a felony crime, jeopardizing his career, his liberty for acting as he was trained, in the public interest, with no malice, ill intent or lack of concern, is unfortunate and sad,” Denver Police Protective Association President Tyson Worrell said. “…Officer Ramos is not a criminal and should not be treated as one.”

Ramos was one of three officers who fired at 21-year-old Jordan Waddy after bars closed on July 17. Police previously alleged they saw Waddy punch someone outside of the bar and make a motion that indicated he had a gun. Waddy walked away from officers as they approached him.

Body camera footage showed Waddy stepping between two parked cars and onto the street, then raising his hands when he saw police. Waddy turned his back to the officers and walked back between the two cars and onto the sidewalk, the videos showed.

Waddy then turned to face the officers and grabbed a gun from his clothing as police yelled “stop” and “get down.” At a briefing last summer, Denver police said Waddy fumbled with the weapon, appearing to hold it from the top with his hand over the slide. He did not hold the gun in a “pistol grip,” Cmdr. Matt Clark said at the time.

Body camera footage shows Waddy throwing the gun to the ground as three officers, including Ramos, opened fire.

A total of six bystanders outside of the beer hall were injured, and at least five of them suffered gunshot wounds. According to the indictment, one man was shot in the arm, two women were shot in the leg, one woman was shot in the shoulder and one man was shot in the foot. Waddy also suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Three of the victims — Yekalo Weldewihet, Bailey Alexander and Willis Small IV — said at a news conference Wednesday that they were surprised but relieved that Ramos was indicted.

“Officer Ramos’ conduct was in violation of the law as well as common sense,” said Alexander, who was shot in the shoulder.

Weldewihet is still completing physical therapy for the gunshot wound to his arm, he said. All three said they continue to suffer from anxiety from the shooting.

Small, who was wounded in his foot, said Hancock’s statement calling the victims’ injuries “regrettable” was an understatement.

“It’s a blessing that any of us are here today,” he said.

“The word the mayor should have used is ‘preventable,’” said Siddhartha Rathod, one of the lawyers at Rathod Mohamedbhai representing the victims. “This never should have happened.”

The other two officers — Meghan Lieberson and Kenneth Rowland — will not face criminal charges because prosecutors and the grand jury found their actions to be legally justified, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said in a news release.

The grand jury found that neither Lieberson nor Rowland injured any of the five bystanders who were shot. They both have returned to work but remain on a non-patrol assignment, according to the Denver Police Department.

Lieberson fired two rounds and Rowland fired four, but there was nobody behind Waddy from their perspective. They used an appropriate amount of force and did not put others’ lives at risk when they fired, according to the indictment.

Ramos fired from a different angle. He knew that, from where he stood, there was a large crowd of people behind Waddy and that he did not have a clear backdrop, the indictment states. At no point did Waddy turn and face Ramos with the gun and Ramos was not in immediate danger when he fired his weapon, according to the grand jury.

“Officer Ramos’ decision to shoot was not legally justified because it was reckless, unreasonable and unnecessary for the purpose of protecting himself or other officers and he consciously disregarded an unjustifiable risk of injury to the crowd behind Mr. Waddy,” the indictment states.

Worrell, the police union president, placed the blame for the shooting on Waddy alone, and said the officers were acting in the public’s best interest. Officers had to act to stop Waddy once he grabbed the gun, Worrell said.

“This could have all been avoided if the suspect would have stopped and showed his hands,” Worrell said. The union president did not directly answer a question as to how shooting bystanders was in the public interest and instead pointed to general crime, gun possession and violence in the LoDo area.

“The Denver police are not hurting anyone down there, it’s other members of the community that are hurting people down there,” he said. “And that is why police are there, to respond to those incidents.”

Worrell said the union would defend Ramos “vigorously” and said the officer’s indictment was likely to have a “chilling effect” on the recruitment and retention of officers.

The grand jury investigating the LoDo police shooting heard testimony from 17 witnesses and reviewed 140 pieces of evidence before handing down the indictment, according to McCann.

“I want to thank the members of the grand jury who have spent many days over the last several months listening to testimony and examining exhibits,” McCann said in a news release. “This is a very serious matter and I appreciate the time and attention each of them devoted to this important decision. The case will now move forward in the courts.”

The case was the first time McCann has convened a grand jury to review a Denver police shooting.

Waddy also faces criminal weapons and assault charges in connection to the incident.

Anderson Aldrich‘s grandaunt called 911 at 11 p.m. June 17, 2021, to report that Aldrich was threatening to kill everyone in Aldrich’s grandparents’ house, according to El Paso County Sheriff’s Office records obtained by The Denver Post through a public records request.

The grandaunt — the sister of Aldrich’s grandfather — told the 911 dispatcher that Aldrich was going to kill Christians and “anyone who has anything to do with the government,” the documents show. She said she was concerned about her brother’s safety. Aldrich’s grandfather told another family member that he had been hiding in a closet because he was afraid and that he hadn’t answered his phone for an hour, according to the records.

Aldrich is accused of killing five people and injuring more than 20 in the Nov. 19 mass shooting at Club Q, a beloved LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs. Prosecutors charged Aldrich with more than 300 criminal counts, including first-degree murder and hate crimes. Aldrich’s attorneys have said Aldrich is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

The grandaunt reported that Aldrich had an AR-15 rifle, full body armor and was in the process of making another gun. The grandaunt told the dispatcher that Aldrich’s grandmother said Aldrich would fight police officers and that she feared Aldrich would go into a church or government building, according to the sheriff’s records.

The grandaunt told the 911 dispatcher that she first called the FBI about the threat, but said the FBI told her to contact local law enforcement. The FBI previously confirmed it had received a tip about Aldrich in June 2021 before Aldrich was arrested in connection with a bomb threat. The agency, however, didn’t offer any details about the tip itself.

Following the grandaunt’s 911 call, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office dispatched two deputies to the house, but they never approached it because one of the deputies was able to contact Aldrich’s grandfather by phone just after midnight, the records show.

Aldrich’s grandfather told the deputy that he was safe and that he did not feel threatened, though he noted Aldrich had an AR-15 and a handgun, according to the sheriff’s records.

The incident was closed and logged as non-criminal, though deputies entered a warning about the address in their computer system.

“Anderson Lee Aldrich is known to have a Glock and AR-15 and unknown amount of ammunition,” the warning states. “Anderson has made threats to (his grandfather) that he will shoot it out with the cops. Send 2 Deputies on all calls. Any calls reference this address, start by phone.”

The following day, El Paso County sheriff’s deputies responded to the house where Aldrich’s mom lived and engaged in a standoff after Aldrich was alleged to have made more threats against family members. Aldrich was arrested after menacing their grandparents with a gun, threatening to blow up their mom’s house and speaking of a plan to carry out a mass shooting, sheriff’s officials alleged in court documents.

Prosecutors eventually dropped the felony menacing and kidnapping charges against Aldrich in that 2021 case, citing an inability to get Aldrich’s family to cooperate as witnesses.

Sheriff’s officials have said they seized Aldrich’s weapons in the 2021 case and did not return them.

Christopher Lambros sexually assaulted the two women suing the hospital system while they were both unconscious and under his care at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Mesa County District Court.

The hospital, part of SCL Health, failed to properly supervise Lambros or stop his misconduct, the lawsuit alleges.

Lambros, 61, is currently charged with sexually assaulting two victims, but prosecutors advised the court at a recent bond hearing that investigators believe there were four unique victims, of which three have been identified, Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said in an emailed statement. The criminal case against Lambros remains open.

But the lawsuit alleges there could be hundreds of victims. Law enforcement officials have recovered four terabytes of sexually explicit data on Lambros’ digital devices dating back to 2016, according to the lawsuit. That’s about 700,000 photos or 65,000 hours of cellphone video, the suit states.

“The sheer volume of data tells us that there are a lot of victims out there and a lot of them don’t know what happened to them,” said Siddhartha Rathod of Rathod Mohamedbahi Law, which is representing the two women. “It’s the hospital’s duty to inform the victims.”

Lambros assaulted one of the women, identified as M.C. in the lawsuit, on July 9 while she was unconscious in the intensive care unit, according to the lawsuit. He then used his phone to take photos and videos of himself assaulting her, the lawsuit alleges.

Another employee walked into the hospital room while Lambros had his phone out and M.C.’s genitals were uncovered, according to Lambros’ arrest affidavit. The employee then reported the incident to her supervisor and the hospital notified law enforcement.

An officer found Lambros at his home later that day and asked about the incident. Lambros said the patient was uncovered because he was giving her an injection in her stomach for blood clots. He denied taking any photos, but the officer seized his phone and booked it into evidence. A forensic analysis of the phone found photographs and videos of Lambros posing with naked patients and sexually assaulting them, according to his arrest affidavit.

Hospital staff notified M.C.’s husband about Lambros’ alleged assault on July 12 and he told his wife a few days later.

“She didn’t believe me at first until I provided her the police report that I obtained,” her husband said. The Denver Post is not identifying M.C. or her husband because she is a victim of sexual assault. “At that point, she was pretty upset and it only got worse over the course of the next couple days.”

M.C. tries not to think about the assault but it’s impossible to block it from her mind, she told The Post. She’s on a rollercoaster of emotions every day, she said.

Lambros assaulted one of the women, identified as J.V. in the lawsuit, on June 24 and June 25 while she was in the intensive care unit, according to the suit. Lambros used his cellphone to take photos and videos of him assaulting J.V., according to the lawsuit and police documents.

J.V., who The Post also is not identifying, regained consciousness on July 2 and was released from the hospital on July 7. She wasn’t notified by the hospital that she had been assaulted until months later.

She continues to pay $905 a month to cover the $32,000 medical bill she incurred while at the hospital.

“I’m still processing it,” she said. “I have eight days of my life where I have no idea.”

Both women now experience extreme anxiety when going to the doctor, they said. M.C. gets sick to her stomach when she has to go get care, she said.

“They had a pledge to do no harm,” J.V. said.

The hospital placed Lambros on administrative leave on July 9 when the incident was reported and fired him on Oct. 25 when he was arrested, according to a statement.

“What this former nurse is accused of is reprehensible and goes against everything we believe and value at St. Mary’s Medical Center,” said Bryan Johnson, President of St. Mary’s Medical Center. “Patients put their trust in us and should feel safe in our care. We are working closely with law enforcement to protect our patients from those who intend to cause harm. We are doing everything possible to ensure our patients continue to feel safe and respected while receiving care at St. Mary’s Medical Center.”

The hospital assigned Lambros to care for the two vulnerable women and failed to properly supervise him, Rathod said.

“When you’re in the most vulnerable position — you can’t speak, you’re ventilated, you can’t defend yourself, you can’t advocate for yourself — the loss of trust that you know your body was violated… that loss of trust is very real,” Rathod said.

Law enforcement officials seized two guns from Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, after that incident, including a 9 mm pistol that was a “ghost gun,” as well as an AR-15 rifle. But, Allen said, those guns were never returned to Aldrich, who now stands accused of carrying out a mass shooting with an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun.

Five people were killed and another 22 injured, 17 by gunfire, in the Nov. 19 attack at the LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs. Prosecutors this week charged Aldrich with more than 300 criminal counts, including first-degree murder and hate crimes.

The new revelations about Aldrich’s arrest last year on felony kidnapping and menacing charges came only after El Paso County District Court Judge Robin Chittum unsealed the case Thursday morning, citing a “profound” public interest in the 2021 arrest and prosecution that significantly outweighs Aldrich’s right to privacy.

“I look at the statute and I think that it is written for this type of scenario, where something huge comes out of the woodwork and demands scrutiny from the public,” Chittum said.

The handling of the 2021 case, in which Aldrich is accused of threatening to blow up their mother’s home and speaking of plans for a mass shooting, has received intense scrutiny since the Club Q attack because the charges were dismissed and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office did not seek to use Colorado’s red flag law to stop Aldrich from buying or keeping guns.

Even before the 2021 incident, law enforcement had twice been called to deal with Aldrich over concerns that Aldrich had “multiple weapons, ammunition and escalating homicidal behavior,” according to investigative reports released by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday night. It was unclear when those prior interactions occurred.

The 2021 case was sealed at Aldrich’s request in August after the charges were dismissed, and related court records were blocked from public view. State law barred officials not just from discussing the case, but even acknowledging it existed. The 2021 records were unsealed following requests from El Paso County prosecutors and media organizations including The Denver Post.

“We prosecuted it until we couldn’t any longer”

During a news conference Thursday, Allen dismissed the idea that his office could have done more to prosecute Aldrich in the 2021 case or prevent the Club Q attack.

“The only way that it would have prevented the tragedy is if the witnesses were actually present at trial, somebody was convicted — again, he was not convicted in that case — and that person then was in custody for an extended period of time that would have gotten us past this event,” Allen said. “Absent that, I don’t see anything in that prior case that would have prevented this Club Q shooting, unfortunately.”

Prosecutors pursued the 2021 felony case against Aldrich for nearly a year, Allen said, and were prepared for a jury trial this past summer — except for the fact they could not serve subpoenas on Aldrich’s mother and out-of-state grandparents, the three victims and key witnesses in the case.

“They didn’t cooperate, and it led to the dismissal of that case,” Allen said. “But this office absolutely prosecuted it; we prosecuted it until we couldn’t any longer.”

Without the family members’ testimony, the case could not proceed, he said. In July, the prosecution asked for more time to serve subpoenas on the family members, but a judge denied that request and dismissed the case.

The judge, Allen said, cited the inability to subpoena the witnesses and the case’s impending speedy trial deadline — cases in Colorado must be brought to trial within six months of a defendant’s not guilty plea.

Barred from buying guns

Allen said Thursday that a mandatory protection order imposed as part of the 2021 case barred Aldrich from legally buying guns, and Aldrich was also legally prohibited from buying guns while the felony criminal case was pending. Those restrictions ended when the criminal case was dismissed.

Officials with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that they did not seek an extreme risk protection order against Aldrich after the case was dropped because the threats made by Aldrich in June 2021 no longer constituted a threat “in the near future” as required by Colorado’s red flag law.

“The information initially obtained that led to the arrest and charges filed against Aldrich were over a year old by the time the charges against Aldrich and the (mandatory protection order) in place were dismissed,” the news release states.

The sheriff’s office provided a basic timeline outlining the case against Aldrich and his time in their custody:

• June 18, 2021: Aldrich is arrested on suspicion of felony menacing and kidnapping charges and booked into the El Paso County jail. Bond is set at $1 million and all weapons belonging to Aldrich are confiscated.
• June 22, 2021: A judge imposes a mandatory protection order against Aldrich, banning Aldrich from possessing firearms.
• Aug. 5, 2021: A judge reduces Aldrich’s bond to $100,000.
• Aug. 7, 2021: Aldrich bonds out of jail, but is still banned from possessing firearms under the protection order.
• July 5: A judge dismisses the case against Aldrich. The protection order is dismissed, and Aldrich is now able to legally possess firearms.
• Aug. 4: After a conversation with the sheriff’s office, prosecutors request that the evidence in the case — including Aldrich’s guns — be held for the entirety of the statute of limitations in the dismissed case.
• Aug. 11: The case against Aldrich is sealed.
• Aug. 12: Aldrich calls the sheriff’s evidence facility to seek the release of evidence in the case, including guns. The sheriff’s office denied the request.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has never filed for an extreme risk protection order since the law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, court records show. The law allows law enforcement or family to ask a judge to issue an order that bans a person from possessing or purchasing guns if that person poses a threat to themselves or others.

An initial 14-day temporary protection order can be followed by a permanent extreme risk protection order, which can be put in place for 364 days, and then extended for a second year.

El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder said in Thursday’s news release that he opposes Colorado’s red flag law as written, though not the concept.

Sheriff’s deputies in El Paso County are banned from seeking extreme risk protection orders “unless exigent circumstances exist and probable cause that a crime has been committed can be established,” according to a copy of the agency’s policy obtained by The Denver Post through a records request. A deputy who submits such a petition is required to simultaneously submit a petition for a court-ordered mental health evaluation.

That’s more stringent than policies held by other Colorado law enforcement agencies.

Denver’s police department does not require officers to have probable cause that a crime has been committed and only requires “a reasonable belief” that the person poses a significant risk of harm in the near future. It also doesn’t require officers seek a mental health evaluation of the subject.

It is legal in Colorado to possess a “ghost gun” — an untraceable gun without a serial number that can be assembled at home from kits purchased online or created using 3D printers — except for in Denver. The Denver City Council in January voted to outlaw ownership of ghost guns.

Selling build-at-home gun kits is also legal under federal law, though some states have passed legislation to restrict their use. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in August created new regulations around ghost guns. Under the new rules, sellers of ghost guns must be federally licensed, add serial numbers to gun parts and buyers must undergo background checks. Someone who wants to legally sell a ghost gun they built or 3D-printed now must use a licensed dealer for the transaction.

Allen on Thursday declined to say whether Aldrich bought any guns illegally while the 2021 felony criminal case was pending.

“The next mass killer”

Aldrich’s public defender, Joseph Archambault, objected multiple times to unsealing the case, and when Chittum ruled to open the file, he asked for a stay of her order so he could appeal directly to the Colorado Supreme Court. The judge denied that request and allowed the unsealing to go forward immediately.

“If this is unsealed, Mx. Aldrich will lose any hope for a fair trial in this jurisdiction,” Archambault said, emphasizing that the 2021 case involved only unproven allegations. (Aldrich is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, according to their attorneys in the Club Q case.)

Aldrich’s mother and grandparents, the alleged victims in the case, also objected to the unsealing. Aldrich appeared in court for the hearing, sitting quietly.

The unsealed court documents allege Aldrich threatened to blow up a home and become the “next mass killer.”

Aldrich was also in possession of about 10 gallons of Tannerite, a brand of explosive targets, as well as 113 lbs of ammonium nitrate and packets of aluminum powder, according to the sheriff’s investigative reports. Ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder become explosive when combined.

A witness told investigators that Aldrich claimed to be “building a bomb large enough to blow up a police department or federal building,” according to an investigator’s application for a search warrant.

According to court records, the June 18, 2021, incident began when Aldrich’s grandparents called a family meeting in their Colorado Springs living room about plans to sell their home and move to Florida. Aldrich was enraged, and said the move would interfere with Aldrich’s plans to store materials in the grandparents’ basement to “conduct a mass shooting and bombing.”

The grandparents told authorities Aldrich threatened to kill them and spoke of plans to “go out in a blaze.” They begged for their lives, and when Aldrich went to the basement, they ran out the door and called 911.

A short time later, Aldrich arrived at their mother’s home with a big black bag and indicated plans to make a last stand at her home. She fled, and Aldrich holed up in the mother’s home, threatening to blow up the place as a police SWAT team swarmed and deployed bomb-sniffing dogs. “Come on in boys, let’s (expletive) see it!” Aldrich yelled on a Facebook livestream. Aldrich later surrendered with hands up, in a short-sleeved shirt, shorts and bare feet.

Although Aldrich’s family initially called police for help, leading to the criminal charges against Aldrich, they later advocated for Aldrich’s bond to be reduced. In court, family members said Aldrich was “loving and passionate” and did not deserve to be in prison, Allen said.

A Nov. 29 letter from Aldrich’s grandfather and their grandfather’s sister included in court documents detail Aldrich’s upbringing in their grandparents’ home and multiple threats Aldrich made against family members. Aldrich attacked their grandfather while living in San Antonio and repeatedly broke windows and punched holes in the walls of their Colorado Springs home, according to the letter.

“We feel certain that if Anderson is freed that he will hurt or murder my brother and his wife,” the grandfather’s sister wrote.

Aldrich and their grandparents went to therapy with a counselor, who then contacted police, the letter states. Police went to the grandparents’ home to conduct a mental-health hold but Aldrich’s grandmother would not let them take her grandchild, the letter states.

The letter also states that Aldrich purchased two 3D printers “on which he was making guns.”

An Associated Press report published this week detailed the leaked documents after they first were obtained and reported by Colorado Springs TV station KKTV.

During Thursday’s hearing, Archambault asked for a contempt of court citation against the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in connection with the leaked court documents. The Associated Press relied on an anonymous law enforcement official to verify that the leaked documents obtained by KKTV were legitimate.

Archambault called the leak an attempt to “manipulate and hoodwink the court” into releasing the 2021 case.

“The court cannot allow law-breaking to occur and gain an advantage by breaking the law,” he said.

Chittum said she would take some time to review the motion for contempt of court and said she expected to set a hearing about the citation at a later date. Archambault said he was not seeking jail time or fines as a penalty for contempt, but rather other “appropriate remedies.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

COLORADO SPRINGS — Prosecutors charged the suspect in last month’s mass shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs with 305 criminal counts Tuesday, including first-degree murder, bias-motivated crimes, assault and attempted murder.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, had been arrested and held on suspicion of first-degree murder and hate crimes immediately after the Nov. 19 mass shooting at Club Q, but prosecutors did not bring formal criminal charges until Tuesday, which is normal under Colorado’s court process.

Aldrich now faces 10 counts of first-degree murder, 86 counts of attempted first-degree murder, 48 counts of bias-motivated crimes and 90 counts of assault. The charges against Aldrich also include 71 sentence enhancers, online court records show, which allow prosecutors to pursue harsher penalties should Aldrich be convicted. First-degree murder convictions carry mandatory sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said in a news conference after a court hearing Tuesday that the number of charges reflects the seriousness of the crime.

“Obviously when you file 305 counts in a case, that tells the public, this community, this state and this nation that we are taking this case as seriously as we possibly can and we are going to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.

Aldrich is accused of killing five people and shooting 17 others in the attack. Five additional people were injured during the attack, but not by gunfire, police have said. The suspect was beaten into submission by club patrons who stopped the mass shooting within minutes.

Those killed in the attack were: Daniel Aston, 28; Kelly Loving, 40; Ashley Paugh, 35; Derrick Rump, 38; Raymond Green Vance, 22.

Aldrich appeared in a Colorado Springs courtroom for Tuesday’s hearing shackled, handcuffed and wearing a jail jumpsuit. The defendant is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, their public defenders have said in court filings.

During an initial court appearance shortly after the attack, Aldrich’s face was heavily bruised and they sat slumped over; on Tuesday they appeared more alert and the bruises on their face were healing. Aldrich did not speak and sat still during the hearing.

El Paso County District Court Judge Michael McHenry ordered the arrest affidavit in the case be unsealed by the end of the day Wednesday, over the objection of Aldrich’s defense attorneys.

After the hearing, Allen would not say what evidence led prosecutors to bring the bias-motivated crime charges against Aldrich, but said he believes there is enough evidence to support those crimes. He said he would not have been able to charge the bias-motivated crimes without a recent change in the state’s law.

“The wording was changed to allow (a crime) to be committed ‘in whole or in part’ based on bias,” he said, adding that Aldrich’s status as non-binary was “part of the picture” when he was considering appropriate charges.

The hate crime charges verified that the shooting was a targeted attack, Matthew Haynes, one of the owners of Club Q, said in a news release.

“The tragedy at Club Q shows that words matter and that words have real-world consequences,” Haynes said. “We continue to call out those who spread disgusting rhetoric and encourage violence against the LGBTQ community, to end this behavior immediately before more people get hurt. And we urge everyone to do what they can to speak up for LGBTQ people and everyone’s right to be safe.”

Allen said the charges against Aldrich could change should more victims come forward.

Aldrich was not charged with gun or weapons violations. Allen declined to explain that decision Tuesday or say whether the suspect legally bought the guns used in the attack.

“That gets too close to the heart of the investigation,” he said.

A two-day preliminary hearing in the case was set for Feb. 22 over the objection of Aldrich’s attorney, who said that date did not give the defense team enough time to review evidence in the case and prepare for the hearing.

If the case goes to a jury trial, it may not do so until 2024, Allen said. In other recent Colorado mass shootings — including the Boulder King Soopers attack in 2021 and the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic shooting in 2015 — the cases have been stalled for months and years by questions about the defendant’s mental competency.

Allen acknowledged that such delays are common but declined to speculate about whether the issue of Aldrich’s mental competency would be raised in future court proceedings.

Colorado Springs police detained and ticketed Laura Voepel, 45, at about 3:30 a.m. Nov. 20 on suspicion of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for unreasonable noise, online court records show. Voepel is the mother of Anderson Lee Aldrich, who is in jail on suspicion of killing five just before midnight on Nov. 19 in the shooting at Club Q. More than 20 people were injured.

Voepel was detained for refusing to stop yelling in an apartment complex, according to police records. She then “became combative” with officers trying to take her into custody. Denver television station KDVR first reported the citation.

Resisting arrest is a misdemeanor and disorderly conduct is a petty offense.

Voepel is scheduled to appear in El Paso County Court on Jan. 25 for her arraignment.

COLORADO SPRINGS — The suspect accused of killing five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs over the weekend was ordered held without bond during an initial court appearance Wednesday.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, appeared via video from the El Paso County jail, clad in an orange jumpsuit and seated slightly slumped over in a wheelchair behind their two defense attorneys.

Aldrich, whose attorneys said identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, spoke little during the brief hearing, confirming their name and an acknowledgment of their rights in slow, slightly slurred speech. Public defender Joseph Archambault stepped back and placed his hand on Aldrich’s shoulder as they spoke.

Aldrich, who police say was tackled and subdued by patrons shortly after the shooting began late Saturday night, was released from a local hospital Tuesday.

It was the suspect’s first public appearance since they were arrested early Sunday on suspicion of killing five people and injuring 18 more at Club Q, a Colorado Springs nightclub. Formal charges have yet to be formally filed; Aldrich has been held on suspicion of five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of bias-motivated crimes causing bodily injury.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said after the hearing that prosecutors expect to file formal charges at Aldrich’s next hearing; that date is still being set. County Court Judge Charlotte Ankeny ordered Aldrich held without bond, and Allen said prosecutors will seek to continue that hold going forward.

Asked whether Aldrich’s identification as nonbinary will affect how they’re charged, Allen would only say that prosecutors will consider all possible options.

The attack has left the community reeling. The shooting began minutes before the beginning of Transgender Day of Remembrance and at a club that’s central to the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs. Authorities said earlier this week that they’re still investigating a possible motive for the shooting but that it has the “trappings of a hate crime.”

Days later, much remains unknown about the suspect.

Texas court records indicate Aldrich changed their name in 2015 to distance themself from their father and his criminal history. Records indicate Aaron Brink, who identified himself as Aldrich’s father in the name-changing petition, has been arrested in California and Arizona. In an appearance on a reality TV show several years ago, Brink said he went to prison for marijuana smuggling and was later arrested for assault.

A person with the same name as Aldrich was arrested in Colorado Springs in June 2021 after getting into a standoff with law enforcement and allegedly threatening their mother. Prosecutors and law enforcement have refused to comment on that case or confirm if the suspect in the Club Q shooting is the same person from the 2021 incident.

There are no publicly available court or law enforcement records related to the 2021 arrest, suggesting the case was sealed. Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said it can and likely will be unsealed. A coalition of news outlets, including The Post, filed a petition Monday asking that the 2021 case be made public.

Colorado Springs TV station KKTV reported that it had obtained court documents from the 2021 case that say the suspect spoke of plans to commit a mass shooting.

Aldrich was the apparent target of online harassment in 2015, and online forums mocked his arrest and shootings Tuesday. Officials have said they’re investigating Aldrich’s social media and online persona but have declined to release further details.