Colorado Springs gay club shooting suspect charged with murder, hate crimes

The suspect accused of opening fire last month in a gay nightclub in Colorado, killing five people and wounding 17 others, was charged Tuesday with 305 counts, including ones for murder and hate crimes.

Prosecutors have said they were unsure whether there was enough evidence to show that Anderson Lee Aldrich, a 22-year-old who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns according to court documents, was motivated by bias when allegedly carrying out the attack in Colorado Springs, the Associated Press reported.

District Attorney Michael Allen said the murder charges have the harshest penalty but the public needs to know that bias-motivated crimes are not tolerated even if there is not enough evidence to support the counts.

Aldrich has not entered a plea after allegedly using an AR-15-style rifle to shoot people at Club Q during a drag queen event on Nov. 19. Two people confronted Aldrich at the scene and stopped the shooting until police arrived.