On Saturday, November 19, a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado left five people dead and more than two dozen people injured. The man arrested in connection with the attack, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, is facing five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of a "bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury," according to court filings. And CBS 8 San Diego is reporting that Aldrich is the grandson of California State Assemblyman Randy Voepel.
CBS 8 San Diego's Steve Price reports that Voepel "once drew harsh criticism from several of his colleagues in Sacramento for comparing the January 6 attack on the Capitol to the American Revolutionary War."
A far-right Republican, the 72-year-old Voepel has been an avid supporter of the Tea Party. After a mob of Donald Trump supporters violently attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, Voepel declared, "This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny. Tyranny will follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear-in on January 20."
Law enforcement officials have not gone into specifics about the alleged shooter's possible motivations or political views in the attack on Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs. But the court filings indicate that they are considering it a politically motivated hate crime.
