Survivors of a mass shooting in Colorado have lashed out at the suspect’s attempts to blame the carnage on drugs — amid reports that a plea deal in the case is expected this month.
On 19 November, 23-year-old Lee Aldrich stormed inside Club Q, a longtime sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs, and fired an AR-15 rifle indiscriminately, according to authorities. Aldrich, who since their arrest has identified as non-binary and now uses they and them pronouns, allegedly killed five people and wounded 17 others before a Navy officer and an Army veteran who were at the club when the violence ensued subdued them.
According to a report by the Associated Press published on Wednesday, survivors have been notified by prosecutors that Aldrich is expected to strike a plea deal to state murder and hate charges. The victims have welcomed the 26 June hearing, which would ensure at least a life sentence, as an opportunity to have some semblance of closure.
But just weeks away from their expected sentencing, Aldrich has made baffling remarks to the AP that they “couldn’t believe what happened,” trying to undermine a trove of evidence, including maps, diagrams, online rants and other rhetoric that showed months of plotting and premeditation. Aldrich also suggested their actions were prompted by “a very large plethora of drugs” and the fact that they “had been up for days [and] ... was abusing steroids.”
Survivors who listened to Aldrich’s interview from jail hit out at those characterisations, branding them a manipulative attempt to escape the death penalty.
“No one has sympathy for him,” Michael Anderson, a bartender at Club Q on the day of the shooting, told the AP. “This community has to live with what happened, with collective trauma, with PTSD, trying to grieve the loss of our friends, to move past emotional wounds and move past what we heard, saw and smelled.”
Wyatt Kent, who was at Club Q celebrating his 23rd birthday, lost his partner Daniel Aston during the massacre.
“Someone’s gone that can never be brought back through the justice system,” Mr Kent told the AP. “We are all still missing a lot, a partner, a son, a daughter, a best friend.”
The AP’s interview with the alleged mass killer came about following a request by the news agency to Aldrich for comment regarding a previous kidnapping arrest. Those charges were filed in 2021 after Aldrich threatened to kill their grandparents and “go out in a blaze” when they found out the couple planned to move to Florida.
Despite threatening to become “the next mass killer,” the seizure of more than 100 pounds of explosive materials, guns and body armour from their home, and a standoff with a SWAT team, prosecutors dismissed the case. The DA in the case pinned the blame on Aldrich’s relatives for not fully cooperating with the investigation.
Aldrich declined to comment on that case but then asked to be paid for an interview in March, which the AP declined.
Aldrich contacted the AP again last month, offering a series of contradicting statements in which they pledged “to take responsibility” for their actions while simultaneously trying to escape accountability.
“I have to take responsibility for what happened,” Aldrich told the AP. “Nothing’s ever going to bring back their loved ones ... People are going to have to live with injury that can’t be repaired.”
But when asked why they committed such heinous crimes, they dodged accountability: “I don’t know. That’s why I think it’s so hard to comprehend that it did happen. ... I’m either going to get the death penalty federally or I will go to prison for life, that’s a given.”
“I don’t know if this is common knowledge but I was on a very large plethora of drugs,” they continued. “I had been up for days. I was abusing steroids. ... I’ve finally been able to get off that crap I was on.”
They refused to directly address whether the attack was motivated by hate, only saying that assertion was “completely off base.”
Prosecutors have noted in filings that most of the victims have agreed that a plea deal is the best way to proceed with the case. Survivors said they’ve been asked to prepare their victim statements for the upcoming hearing later this month, as well as prepare themselves to see evidence of what took place on the tragic day of the violence.
“My fear is that if this takes years, that prevents the processing and moving on and finding peace beyond this case,” Michael Anderson said. “I would love this wrapped up as quickly as possible under the guarantee that justice is served.”
The AP noted in a disclaimer that the editorial board decided to publish Aldrich’s interview because they “judged that the suspect’s stated intent to accept responsibility and expression of remorse were newsworthy and should be reported.”
