COLORADO SPRINGS — The 2021 criminal case against the Club Q shooting suspect that involved an alleged threat to become the “next mass killer” was dismissed by a judge after the suspect’s family members refused to participate in the court process, Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said Thursday.
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.
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