The shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs in 2022 intends to plead guilty to 74 federal counts, including 50 federal hate crimes, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23, reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearm violations, according to court documents filed in a U.S. District Court in Colorado.
The gun charges can carry a maximum penalty of death, which federal prosecutors will not seek under the plea deal, the filings stated. Prosecutors instead agreed to multiple, concurrent life sentences and another 190-year prison sentence.
The agreement was unsealed after Aldrich pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Tuesday afternoon. The deal still needs a judge’s approval.
Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, pleaded guilty last June to state charges of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder, one for each person who was at Club Q during the Nov. 19, 2022, shooting. They pleaded no contest to two counts of bias-motivated crimes, one felony and one misdemeanor, and they were eventually sentenced to life in prison.
Aldrich appeared in court by video Tuesday, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The latest federal charges come after an FBI investigation into the shooting.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Aldrich, who previously lived in Colorado Springs, entered Club Q on Nov. 19, 2022, and began firing with a loaded assault weapon as part of a “willful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated attack.”
The shooting was stopped by a Navy officer who grabbed the barrel of Aldrich’s rifle and an Army veteran who helped subdue and beat Aldrich before police arrived. Five people were killed and 19 were wounded, according to the DOJ.
The AP last year reported Aldrich expressed remorse for their actions and indicated through phone calls in jail that they were prepared to face the consequences.
Aldrich on Tuesday declined to speak at the sentencing hearing in state court and did not reveal why they hung out at the club, then went outside and returned in body armor while firing an AR-15 style rifle, the AP reported.
Prosecutors said Aldrich visited the club at least six times before the night of the shooting and that Aldrich’s mother forced them to go, the news wire added. They told the AP they were on a “very large plethora of drugs” and abusing steroids when the attack occurred.
When asked if the attack was motivated by hate, Aldrich told the AP that was “completely off base.”
Colorado Springs area District Attorney Michael Allen said Aldrich’s claim of being nonbinary is a tactic to avoid hate crime charges and argued there was no evidence of Aldrich identifying as nonbinary prior to the shooting, per the news wire.