A judge who dismissed a 2021 kidnapping case against the Colorado gay nightclub shooter warned last year the defendant was planning a shootout and needed mental health treatment or ”it’s going to be so bad.”.
December 16, 2022, 11:58 AMIn this image taken from El Paso County District Court video, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, center, sits during a court appearance in Colorado Springs, Colo., Tuesday, Dec. Nov. 6, 2022. Aldrich, the suspect accused of entering a Colorado gay nightclub clad in body armor and opening fire with an AR-15-style rifle, killing five people and wounding 17 others, was charged by prosecutors Tuesday with 305 criminal counts including hate crimes and murder.
“You clearly have been planning for something else,” Chittum told Aldrich during the hearing, after the defendant testified about an affinity for shooting firearms and a history of mental health problems. There was no discussion at that July hearing about Aldrich’s mental health treatment, violent past, or exploring options to compel Aldrich’s grandparents and mother to testify.
Aldrich — who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, according to defense attorneys — livestreamed on Facebook a subsequent confrontation with SWAT teams at the house of their mother, Laura Voepel, where the defendant eventually surrendered, was arrested and had weapons seized. The FBI had received a tip on Aldrich a day before the threat but closed out the case just weeks later, and no federal charges were filed.
There is scant discussion in the transcripts of efforts by prosecutors to subpoena other potential witnesses — including Aldrich’s mother, grandfather and a fourth person who is listed in court documents but not identified.
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