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The gunman who killed five people and wounded 19 others at a Colorado Springs nightclub has pleaded guilty to 50 federal hate crime charges in the United States.
Aldrich pleaded guilty on Tuesday (early Wednesday AEST) under a deal with prosecutors that allows the shooter to avoid the death penalty and instead be sentenced to multiple life sentences for the hate crimes plus a total of 190 years on the weapons charges and other numbers. Aldrich later declined to speak in court.
Defense attorneys in the state case disputed hate as a motivation, arguing that Aldrich was high on cocaine and drugs at the time.
In jailhouse phone calls with The Associated Press last year, Aldrich did not directly answer the question of whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only that it was “totally unfounded” and ultimately pleading no contest to state felony charges. hatred, with which he pleads not guilty.
“Recognizing that these are hate crimes is important to the government and it’s important to the Club Q community,” said prosecutor Alison Conaughty.
Club Q was more than a bar, Connaughty said.
“It’s a special gathering place for anyone who needs community and anyone who needs that safe place,” she said.
“We met people who said ‘this place saved my life and I was able to feel normal again.’
Defense attorney David Kraut said Tuesday there was no clear explanation for why Aldrich carried out the shooting, but he cited childhood trauma, a sometimes abusive mother, online extremism, drug use and access to guns as factors that “combine to increase the risk, Anderson would have engaged in extreme violence.”
U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, heard testimony from the victims before deciding whether to accept the plea deal.
Less than a month before the shooting, Aldrich coordinated a spam campaign against a former chief who is gay, according to recent court documents from prosecutors. They also accuse Aldrich of distributing someone else’s manifesto that included racist and anti-Semitic slurs and the false claim that being transgender is a mental illness.
Aldrich spent more than US$9,000 ($13,500) on weapons-related purchases from at least 56 sellers between September 2020 and the November 19, 2022 attack, according to new evidence cited by prosecutors.
A hand-drawn map of Club Q with the entry and exit points marked was found in Aldrich’s apartment, evidence that was also presented in state court. There was also a black binder with training material titled “How to Handle an Active Shooter.”
Defense attorneys in the state case said Aldrich is non-binary and uses the pronouns they/they. But that was rejected by some of the victims, as well as the district attorney who prosecuted Aldrich in state court, who called it an attempt to avoid hate crime charges.
They include Ashtyn Gamblin, who was working the front door that night and remains in physical therapy after being shot nine times. A true member of the LGBTQ+ community would know about the discrimination and mental health challenges they face and would not attack its members in such a sanctuary, she said.
“To go into the only safe place for that, you’re not part of the community. You just wanted the community to go away,” Gamblin said.
She is among the survivors expected to speak at the hearing about how the attack still affects their lives.
Aldrich visited the club at least eight times before the attack, including a stop an hour and a half before the shooting, according to prosecutors. Shortly before midnight, Aldrich returned wearing a tactical vest with ballistic plates and an AR-15 rifle and immediately began shooting. Aldrich killed the first person at the entrance, shot at bartenders and bar patrons, and then moved onto the dance floor, stopping to reload the shotgun magazine.
“The defendant was able to level everyone,” Connaughty said.
“There were 60 shots fired in less than 60 seconds. The defendant emptied the magazine. The defendant was ready to do the maximum amount of damage in the minimum amount of time.”
The shooting was stopped by a Navy officer who grabbed the barrel of the suspect’s rifle, burning his hand, and an Army veteran who helped calm Aldrich until police arrived, authorities said.
There was a chance to prevent such violence: Aldrich was arrested in June 2021, accused of threatening their grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass murderer” while stockpiling guns, bulletproof vests and bomb-making materials . But Aldrich’s mother and grandparents refused to cooperate, and prosecutors were unable to serve subpoenas on family members who could have kept the case alive, so the charges were eventually dismissed.
A felony conviction in the case would prevent Aldrich from legally purchasing any more firearms. But District Attorney Michael Allen pointed out that most of the gun components used in the shooting were untraceable ghost gun parts that did not require Aldrich to pass a background check to acquire them. Two guns seized from Aldrich in the 2021 case were still being held by the sheriff’s office at the time of the Club Q shooting, he said.
In justifying the proposed sentence, prosecutors wrote: “The horrors that victims and survivors have endured at the hands of the defendant cannot be overstated.”
“Victims and survivors celebrating Transgender Day of Remembrance were attacked when they least suspected it by someone who had stood in their presence just hours before,” they wrote.
Aldrich, who will be returned to state prison after the hearing, was sentenced federally under the Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded the federal law in 2009 to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation. gender identity or disability.
Gamblin wanted the death penalty in recognition of how many people had suffered. She said some friends no longer want to go to events and others are struggling to keep jobs that involve dealing with the public.
“We don’t want anything to go back to normal, but we know that’s not going to happen,” she said.
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