US: Colorado LGBTQ club shooting suspect jailed for life
June 26, 2023
The attacker who opened fire at an LGBTQ nightclub last year in the US state of Colorado, killing five, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary, pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder earlier in the day.
The 23-year-old also pleaded guilty to 46 counts of attempted murder, and pleaded no contest to two counts of bias-motivated crime.
The lifetime term without parole was part of a plea deal they struck with state prosecutors.
The plea deal spares survivors and family members of victims a potentially lengthy and painful trial over the deadly attack.
"This thing sitting in this courtroom is not a human, it is a monster," said Jessica Fierro, whose daughter's boyfriend was killed in the attack. "The devil awaits with open arms," Fierro said.
What happened in November 2022?
The shooter opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle inside an LGBTQ club, Club Q, in the city of Colorado Springs, killing five and injuring around 25 others, in November 2022.
The shooting stopped when a patron grabbed the handgun from the suspect and hit them with it. The police then arrived quickly on the scene.
The shooting unnerved the LGBTQ community because the club was known for being a safe haven for them and came as the club marked Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is held annually on November 20 with events to remember transgender people lost to violence.
The shooting was reminiscent of the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub, one of the best-known LGBTQ nightclubs in Orlando, Florida.
In June of that year, a gunman who pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State killed 49 people and wounded dozens of others.
June is Pride Month, which celebrates members of the LGBTQ community.
rm/rc (Reuters, AP)