Anderson Lee Aldrich pleaded guilty to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder in the November 2022 attack that left five people dead.
The person who killed five people at a Colorado Springs nightclub in 2022 was sentenced to life in prison on Monday, after victims called the shooter a “monster” and “coward” who hunted down revelers in a calculated attack on a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community.
During an emotional courtroom hearing packed with victims and family members, Anderson Lee Aldrich pleaded guilty to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder — one for each person at Club Q on the night of the shooting. Aldrich also pleaded no contest to two hate crimes, one a felony and the other a misdemeanor. The attack left five dead and more than a dozen others wounded.
“This thing sitting in this court room is not a human, it is a monster,” said Jessica Fierro, whose daughter’s boyfriend was killed that night. “The devil awaits with open arms.”
The guilty plea comes just seven months after the shooting and spares victims’ families and survivors a long and potentially painful trial.
More charges could be coming: The FBI confirmed Monday it was working with the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division on a separate investigation into the attack.
People in the courtroom wiped away tears as the judge explained the charges and read out the names of the victims. Judge Michael McHenry also issued a stern rebuke of Aldrich’s actions, connecting it to societal woes.
’You are targeting a group of people for their simple existence,” McHenry said. “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.”
The killings rekindled memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people.
Relatives and friends of victims were able to give statements in court Monday to remember their loved ones. Survivors spoke about how their lives were forever altered just before midnight on Nov. 19 when the suspect walked into Club Q and indiscriminately fired an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.
The father of a Club Q bartender said Daniel Aston had been in the prime of his life when he was shot and killed.
“He was huge light in this world that was snuffed out by a heinous, evil and cowardly act,” Jeff Aston said.
