Club Q killer sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty

The suspect in a 2022 shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday after pleading guilty earlier in the day to five counts of murder.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, who uses they/them pronouns, also pleaded guilty to 46 counts of attempted murder. They pleaded no contest to two counts of bias-motivated crimes, one felony and one misdemeanor. 

The plea deal would avoid a lengthy and likely painful trial for victims’ families, many of whom still had the opportunity to speak in court on Monday.

“This thing sitting in this court room is not a human, it is a monster,” said Jessica Fierro, whose daughter’s boyfriend was killed in the shooting, the AP reported. “The devil awaits with open arms.”

Authorities said Aldrich entered Club Q in November with an AR-15-style rifle and indiscriminately opened fire. Five people were killed and 18 wounded.

Aldrich reportedly expressed remorse about their actions and indicated in a series of phone calls from jail to The Associated Press they were prepared to face the consequences of the shooting. 

“I intentionally and after deliberation caused the death of each victim,” Aldrich said Monday to Judge Michael McHenry, according to the AP.

People in the courtroom Monday wiped tears away when the judge read the names of the victims and explained the charges, the news service reported.

“You are targeting a group of people for their simple existence,” McHenry said in the courtroom, according to the AP. “Like too many other people in our culture, you chose to find a power that day behind the trigger of a gun, your actions reflect the deepest malice of the human heart, and malice is almost always born of ignorance and fear.”

Aldrich was originally charged with more than 300 state counts, including hate crimes. The AP reported the U.S. Justice Department is considering federal hate crime charges in the shooting.

–Updated at 2:35 p.m.