Colorado LGBT club mass shooter pleads guilty to 50 federal hate crimes

Colorado Springs mass shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich pleaded guilty to over 50 federal hate crimes on Tuesday, and was sentenced to 55 life sentences in prison for shooting up an LGBTQ club.

Aldrich, who is already serving life sentences after they pleaded guilty to state charges, killed five people and injured 19 others at Club Q in November of 2022. Aldrich's attack targeted LGBTQ attendees, despite identifying as nonbinary themselves, though prosecutors have disputed that identification.

Aldrich did not address the survivors of the attack after signing the plea agreement, but the agreement repeatedly states that there was evidence of hate in the crimes. 

“The admission that these were hate crimes is important to the government, and it’s important to the community of Club Q,” prosecutor Alison Connaughty said, per the Associated Press. She added: "[The sentence] sends a message that acts of hate will be met with severe consequences.”

Officials said Aldrich entered Club Q and fired for several minutes before two of the bar's patrons confronted him, stopping the violence until law enforcement arrived.

Defense attorneys for Aldrich claimed that there was no hate in the crimes, and that Aldrich was a drug addict with a background of childhood trauma, an abusive mother, online extremism, and access to guns. But prosecutors claimed Aldrich posted hate-related content on two websites, fired bullets at a rainbow target, and publicly shared 911 phone calls from the 2016 mass shooting at a club in Orlando, that was known for being a haven for the LGBT community.

Aldrich also shared a manifesto from a different mass shooter who allegedly claimed being transgender was having a "disease." 

Many of the victims and survivors of the mass shooting spoke to Aldrich during the sentencing hearing, but one person noted said they "forgive" them, despite losing a partner in the shooting.

“I’ve had to look at my partner in a casket, attend funerals of my friends and deal with unspeakable trauma,” Wyatt Kent, whose partner was killed while working behind the bar, said. “I see this person as a hurt person, created by failures of systems around them designed to help. I forgive you. We, the queer community, we are the resilient ones.”