Club Q gunman sentenced to 55 life sentences in Colorado mass killing

The shooter who killed five people and wounded 19 others during a midnight rampage at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2022 was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 55 concurrent life sentences in addition to a 190-year sentence with no possibility of parole.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24, pleaded guilty to 74 federal counts, including 50 federal hate crimes and other gun crimes, arising from the tragedy at Club Q. The plea was part of a deal with prosecutors to ensure that the death penalty would not be imposed.

The courtroom in Denver was filled with victims’ friends and family as U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, decided whether to accept it. She waited until she had heard from anyone who wanted to speak, telling those attending the hearing that they could take as long as they needed and “we can go till tomorrow if you want.”

Some family members angrily demanded capital punishment, saying Aldrich should learn to live in fear. Others, voices shaking and halting amid tears, spoke about how much they missed their sons, daughters, brothers and sisters.

“Please, your honor, I’m pleading with you. Lock this animal away to the depths of hell,” said Cheryl Norton, whose daughter, Ashtin Gamblin, was shot nine times and still lives with pain. She said Gamblin was covered in the blood of bartender Daniel Aston, another victim. Aston did not survive.

Aston’s parents said no sentence would be enough. His father described feeling “hollow.”

“It’s not enough closure,” Jeff Aston said. “Not even close.”

The hearing allowed members of the LGBTQ+ community to emphasize their strength. Wyatt Kent, a drag performer at Club Q, was working the night of the attack alongside Daniel Aston, his partner. “We, as a queer community, we are the resilient ones,” he told Aldrich, “and we continue to hold that beauty within each other.”

The judge sounded the same note in addressing Aldrich from the bench. “You targeted this community where it lives and breathes,” she said. After handing down the sentence, she continued, “This community is stronger than your armor, stronger than your weapons, and it’s sure as heck stronger than your hatred.”

Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, declined to make a statement but suggested that possibility in the future.

Federal prosecutors had introduced new evidence to prove that the attack at Club Q was premeditated and caused by hate that surfaced weeks before the shooting. Aldrich coordinated a spam email campaign against a former work supervisor who is gay, according to recent court filings, and disseminated another person’s racist and antisemitic manifesto that claimed being transgender is a mental illness.

Aldrich spent more $9,000 on weapons-related purchases between September 2020 and the attack on Nov. 19, 2022, according to the evidence cited by prosecutors.

Nearly a year ago, Aldrich pleaded guilty to 51 state charges for the deaths and injuries at the nightclub as well as no contest to “bias motivated crime” charges. Aldrich received five life sentences, one for each count of first-degree murder, and 2,208 years in prison for each count of attempted first-degree murder. The total was one of the longest handed down in Colorado.

Defense attorneys in the state case argued that Aldrich was high on cocaine and drugged up on medication at the time of the shooting. On Tuesday, however, defense lawyer David Kraut said there’s no single explanation for Aldrich’s actions. He mentioned childhood trauma, a sometimes abusive mother, online extremism, drug use and access to guns as factors that “combined to increase the risk that Anderson would engage in extreme violence.”

The shooting shattered the sense of security at Club Q, a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community in traditionally conservative Colorado Springs.

Club Q, tucked in an industrial area behind a Subway sandwich shop in a suburban strip, was cherished by many. For more than two decades, it wasn’t just a spot for music and dancing but also a welcoming and safe place that some victims said stood up against hate, saved their lives and helped them feel part of a community.

On the night of the attack, Aldrich entered the club with a pistol and an AR-15-style rifle and began firing, court records show. Authorities credited club patrons with subduing the assailant and ending the rampage. Those killed were Aston, 28, and fellow employee Derrick Rump, 38, as well as patrons Raymond Green Vance, 22, Kelly Loving, 40, and Ashley Paugh, 35.

“There’s no place for this in America,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil rights division said after the hearing. Aldrich is already serving the first of the state’s consecutive life sentences in the Colorado prison system.

Colorado has seen a disproportionate share of mass killings. The state recorded 16 last year, its highest level in a decade, according to the research group Gun Violence Archives.

The state has a red-flag law, which allows authorities to remove guns from potentially dangerous people. Aldrich was arrested in 2021 in an alleged bomb threat that prompted a partial evacuation of the Colorado Springs neighborhood where Aldrich and Aldrich’s mother lived. Aldrich was charged with kidnapping and felony menacing. But for reasons that remain unclear, Aldrich was never prosecuted. No bomb was found.