Anderson Lee Aldrich, the individual responsible for the 2022 mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ2S+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 190 years on Tuesday (June 18). Aldrich, 24, pleaded guilty to 74 federal hate crime and gun charges related to the attack that left five dead and 19 injured.
The sentencing follows Aldrich’s guilty plea to state charges last year, which resulted in five consecutive life terms and an additional 2,212 years without parole. The federal sentence will run concurrently with the state sentence.
The attack targeted one of the few LGBTQ2S+ spaces in Colorado Springs, a conservative community. The shooting occurred as patrons were gathering for Transgender Day of Remembrance events, including a drag show.
“You went to this community’s safe place and mass-murdered people, but I hope what you learned today is this community is much stronger than you,” U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney said during the sentencing.
Survivors and family members of the victims gave emotional testimonies during the hearing, recounting the trauma of the attack and its ongoing impact on their lives. The shooting has been described as a “brazen and calculated” attack on the club’s employees and patrons and a “bias-motivated, premeditated, mass-casualty attack.”
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