Alleged Colorado nightclub shooter faces murder, hate crime charges after evading red flag law

The 22-year-old man suspected of killing five people and injuring 25 others at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is facing murder and hate crime charges, court records showed Monday. 

The suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, faces five murder charges and five counts of committing a bias-motivated crime harming others, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

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

Aldrich was already on the police's radar. A year and a half before the shooting, he allegedly threatened his mother with a bomb and forced her neighbors to evacuate while the bomb squad and crisis negotiators convinced him to surrender. However, there is no public record showing that anyone attempted to trigger the state's "red flag" law to seize his weapons and ammo.