Anderson Lee Aldrich

On November 19–20, 2022, an anti-LGBT-motivated mass shooting occurred at Club Q, a gay bar in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States.

Five people were murdered, and 25 others were injured, 19 of them by gunfire.

The shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, was also injured while being restrained, and was taken to a local hospital.

Aldrich was charged and remanded in custody.

On June 26, 2023, Aldrich pled guilty to the shooting and was sentenced to five consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 2,211 years.

On January 16, 2024, Aldrich was additionally charged with 50 federal hate crimes in connection with the shooting.

Club Q is located at the 3430 block of North Academy Boulevard and opened in 2002.

It was for a time the only LGBT club in Colorado Springs, Colorado's second-most populous city with a population of just under 500,000.

A 2021 article by Denver-based magazine 5280 noted the club to be a place "where LGBTQ folks [went] for drag performances, dance parties, and drinks."

The shooting occurred on the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Aldrich was born Nicholas Franklin Brink on May 20, 2000, in San Diego, California, to Aaron Brink, a former pornographic film actor and mixed martial arts fighter, and Laura Voepel, the daughter of Randy Voepel, a Republican former member of the California State Assembly.

Since 2019, Colorado has had a red flag law that allows citizens or law enforcement to petition a court to order the removal of firearms from a potentially dangerous person.

Of the 19 states and the District of Columbia with red flag laws, Colorado has among the lowest per capita rates of invocation of the law.

In opposition to the Colorado statute, more than half of the state's 64 counties declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, including El Paso County where the shooting occurred.

According to the Los Angeles Blade, "It is El Paso County Sheriff's Office's explicit policy not to petition for an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) or Temporary Risk Protection Order (TRPO) to remove firearms from at-risk people".

According to the police chief, the shooting began when Anderson Lee Aldrich entered Club Q while a dance party was being held.

Wielding an AR-15 style rifle, carrying multiple magazines of ammunition, and wearing body armor, Aldrich immediately began firing at employees and patrons while moving further into the building.

Many survivors at first mistook the gunfire for being a part of the music, until the shots continued and occupants saw the muzzle flashes.

Multiple people sheltered behind the bar and in dressing rooms, while others stayed low to the ground.

Minutes into the shooting, a club patron, identified as U.S. Army veteran Richard M. Fierro, charged across the room and tackled Aldrich to the ground, causing the rifle to fall out of reach.

Fierro then grabbed a handgun from the shooter's hand and used it to hit the shooter repeatedly in the head.

Fierro was assisted by two other patrons he recruited, including Thomas James, who moved the rifle away to safety, and a trans woman who used her high heels to stomp on the shooter and helped disable and hold the shooter down until the authorities arrived.

Fierro estimated the shooter's weight at 300 lb.

Police received an initial call for service regarding the shooting at 11:56 p.m. on November 19, with the first officer being dispatched a minute later.

A total of thirty-nine patrol officers from all four divisions of the Colorado Springs Police Department, along with thirty-four firefighters and eleven ambulances, responded to the scene.

The suspect was in custody within about five minutes after the first 9-1-1 call.

After the shooting stopped, many were at first reluctant to leave from hiding spots as they were unsure if the shooter was reloading or had been stopped.

Fierro, who had been covered in blood, was placed in police custody in a squad car for over an hour before he was cleared of suspicion and released.

The injured were transported to three hospitals: seven to Penrose Hospital, ten to Memorial Hospital Central, and two to Memorial Hospital North.

Some ambulances, with most of them AMR, had to transport up to three patients at a time, and a few police cruisers had to transport victims as well.

Five people were killed, and twenty-five others were injured in the shooting, of whom nineteen were by gunfire.

One of the deceased victims, Daniel Aston, was bar supervisor and a frequent performer at the nightclub.

Another fatality, Raymond Vance, was the boyfriend of Fierro's daughter.

During the press conference, the chief of the Colorado Springs Police Department made a point to say the department respected all community members and that they would be identifying the deceased by the names they and their loved ones used.

He then read the names of the deceased victims and included their pronouns.

A vigil was held on November 20 with standing room only at the All Souls Unitarian Church, which was also attended by several members of the City Council.

Additional memorials and events were held throughout the week, which promoted spaces for people to gather and donate.

Donation drives were set up shortly after the shooting from both local organizations and GoFundMe fundraisers for the victims and their families.

On November 24, Colorado Springs evangelical ministry Focus on the Family was targeted with a graffiti message, reading: "Their blood is on your hands. Five lives taken."

The shooter was identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich, a 22-year-old resident of Colorado Springs.