Attorneys on Thursday will gather in court to discuss several motions to unseal a 2021 case for Anderson Aldrich, the person prosecutors say was responsible for the shooting at the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs last month.
The motions will be reviewed by Judge Robin Chittum, according to court records obtained by The Gazette.
Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, was arrested last year at their grandparents home in Colorado Springs after Aldrich said they had a bomb and was planning to use it, according to previous reporting from The Gazette.
In arrest records for the incident obtained by Gazette news partner KKTV, Aldrich said they hoped to become "the next mass shooter" and that Aldrich wanted to "go out in a blaze."
In a video believed to be a livestream of the incident obtained by The Gazette, a person believed to be Aldrich is seen wearing body armor and a helmet while toting what appears to be a rifle as that person moved between rooms. What appears to be a handgun on the bed comes into view as Aldrich directs profanities at deputies outside the home.
“If they breach, I’ma (expletive) blow it to holy hell,” Aldrich can be heard saying about law enforcement. “Go ahead and come on in, boys. Let’s (expletive) see it.”
New footage obtained by The Gazette shows the events leading to the arrest of 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, whose name and age match that of the suspect arrested in Saturday's Club Q shooting, in connection a June 2021 bomb threat reported by his mother in a Lorson Ranch neighborhood. Law enforcement officials investigating the Club Q shootings said Aldrich's “interactions with law enforcement” are part of the broader investigation. Aldrich faced arrest-only charges of felony kidnapping and menacing in the incident, though no formal charges were pursued and his case was sealed, the District Attorney's Office said.
New footage obtained by The Gazette shows events during a 2021 bomb threat that lead to the arrest of 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, whose name and age match that of the suspect arrested in Saturday's Club Q shooting. In this screen recording provided by the owner of the house where Aldrich’s mother lived at the time of the threat, a man appears to be live-streaming the bomb threat while wearing body armor.
Aldrich, 22, spoke with a Gazette reporter in August in an attempt to have a previous story about the incident taken down, saying they had spent two months in jail because of the incident, and that the case had been dismissed.
On Tuesday, Aldrich made their first appearance in Colorado's 4th Judicial District Court where District Attorney Michael Allen announced that his office had filed 305 charges against Aldrich in the Club Q shooting.
The charges include 10 counts of first-degree murder, 86 counts of attempted first-degree murder and 48 counts of bias motivated crime.
Five people were shot and killed, 17 were shot and wounded and five others were injured in a different way during the Nov. 19 attack at Club Q. Police said Aldrich entered the club and shot at patrons for about six minutes before being stopped by two bystanders.
During a news conference following the hearing, Allen declined to comment on Aldrich's 2021 bomb threat case.
