DENVER — Colorado Springs police investigators found a rainbow-colored gun target inside the apartment of suspected Club Q shooter Anderson Aldrich and a rough sketch of the layout of the LGBTQ nightclub, court testimony revealed Wednesday.
Aldrich, 22, is accused of killing five people and injuring 22 others during the Nov. 19 mass shooting at Club Q on North Academy Boulevard.
During a preliminary hearing Wednesday, prosecutors showed photos of Aldrich walking into the club, wearing body armor and carrying an AR-15-style rifle, and then firing the weapon. The entirety of the attack was captured on surveillance video, prosecutors have said.
Surveillance footage also showed that Aldrich visited the club weeks before the attack, on Oct. 29, apparently without incident, according to exhibits introduced by Aldrich’s public defenders. In photos shown in court, Aldrich is seen in the club on that night with a drink in hand.
Aldrich is facing 323 criminal charges in connection with the shooting, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and bias-motivated crimes. The 22-year-old identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, Aldrich’s public defenders have said in court filings.
The rainbow-colored target was found in Aldrich’s mother’s bedroom, in the apartment they shared. The target showed the dark silhouette of a person’s head and shoulders, with rainbow-colored stripes around the silhouette, according to photos shown in court.
Colorado Springs police officers methodically walked through the evidence against Aldrich bit by bit during Wednesday’s preliminary hearing, which is scheduled to last through Friday. Crime scene photos displayed in court showed the aftermath of the carnage: a lone shoe, a bloody rainbow suspender, a tooth in the snow near a yellow hoop earring. There was an overturned table, a wall riddled with bullet holes, cartridge casings and magazines of ammunition.
Victims watching the hearing cried and gasped as graphic crime scene photos were shown that depicted bodies and blood. Aldrich tapped their leg and shook. And a member of the defense team rubbed Aldrich’s shoulder and handed them tissues. Aldrich blew their nose at times. The defendant did not speak.
Five people died in the attack: Daniel Aston, 28; Kelly Loving, 40; Ashley Paugh, 35; Derrick Rump, 38; and Raymond Green Vance, 22.
Inside Aldrich’s apartment, investigators found a handwritten note, camouflage, gun parts and ammunition that matched the ammunition found in the club, Colorado Springs police Detective Jason Gasper testified. The note read, “Please relieve me of my own fate, I am drowning in my own wake, how long must I wait for you to rid me of this hate,” Detective Rebecca Joines testified.
On cross-examination, Gasper agreed with Aldrich’s public defenders that he did not know who wrote the note, and that owning gun parts and shooting targets is not illegal.
Colorado Springs police Officer Connor Wallick testified about being one of the first officers to arrive at the crime scene.
“I could hear people screaming, crying,” Wallick testified. “I could smell a lot of gunpowder. You could hear the music that was still going.”
By the time he arrived, the shooter already had been subdued by club patrons Richard Fierro and Thomas James, who together tackled and disarmed the suspect.
Colorado Springs Detective Ashton Gardner offered the most detailed description yet of James’ actions during the attack. The U.S. Navy member was the first to confront the shooter during the attack, Gardner testified. James grabbed the barrel of the AK-15-style rifle — which was so hot it burned blisters into his hand — and then wrestled with Aldrich, falling down a landing and a short set of stairs in the club.
Aldrich at some point in the struggle abandoned the rifle and instead pulled a handgun from their vest. The gun fired twice as they fought, and James was shot in his chest and diaphragm, Gardner testified. After he was shot, surveillance video shows James kept fighting the suspect and received help from other patrons, including Fierro.
“It’s clear he’s very winded but he continues to do what he can to subdue the suspect until police arrive,” Gardner testified. He added that James later gave up his spot in an ambulance so someone else could be helped first.
Aldrich’s public defenders, Joseph Archambault and Michael Bowman, zeroed in on the bias-motivated charges during their cross-examination. Investigators agreed with the attorneys that Aldrich never used homophobic slurs during or after the attack, that Aldrich apologized after the shooting and that investigators never found a written manifesto expressing hatred of LGBTQ people.
“There was concerning writings,” Gasper said. “But as far as being directly targeted toward the LGBTQ community? No, not that I’ve seen anyway.”
Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen has said data in Aldrich’s phone and Aldrich’s conversations support the bias-motivated crime counts. Allen previously told reporters that he would not have been able to charge the bias-motivated crimes without a recent change in state law that allows such charges when a person is motivated “in whole or in part” by bias.
Aldrich denied being the shooter when officers arrived and claimed to have been shot, Wallick testified, though later inspection showed no such gunshot wound.
The weapon Aldrich used in the attack was equipped with a flashlight and a “red-dot style” sight, Gasper testified. Investigators also found a baseball hat with a cellphone duct-taped to the bill — camera facing forward — on the front seat of Aldrich’s vehicle, which Aldrich left running and with the driver’s side door open when they entered the club, testimony revealed.
At the end of the preliminary hearing, Fourth Judicial District Judge Michael McHenry will decide whether there is enough evidence to support the charges against Aldrich. The judge could dismiss some charges or allow the case to go forward as is.
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