Shooting at Club Q, Colorado Springs

On the 19 of November, a horrifying attack on countless queer lives was perpetuated by the 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich at a local gay club (Club Q) in Colorado Springs. The suspect carried an "AR-style platform" long gun along with multiple magazines with ammunition, entered the bar's premises, and opened fire on the crowd injuring nearly two dozen people and killing five:  Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Raymond Green Vance, Derrick Rump, and Ashley Green Paugh.  The first calls to the police were made around 11:57 am with the police arriving 3 minutes later, not before Richard Fierro (a veteran), and Thomas James intercepted Aldrich, took away their gun, and a transgender woman stomped on Aldrich's head with her high heel to knock them out. 

I would like to clear something out before I continue, Aldrich recently stated in their first public appearance that they go by they/them pronouns, so I will continue to refer to them as such. It is up to you if you want to do it, I can't force you to do anything. With that being said I'll continue naming a couple of issues I've seen people throw around regarding this case.

The first thing I've seen people debate on about this topic has been whether or not it was a bias-motivated attack, meaning whether or not this crime was committed with the intention of killing people because they are queer, or if they just wanted to kill people and the first place they thought of shooting up was a gay club.

The second is whether or not this event could have been avoided. People have found out that Aldrich has been previously arrested for a bomb threat at their mother's house; their mother reported that they were “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,”, the sheriff’s crisis negotiations unit tried to get them out of the house for hours, once they did they were immediately arrested. Upon searching the house no explosives were found.

Lastly, I would like to mention something that has been personally bugging me about this case: Aldrich stating that they go by they/them pronouns. I don't mean I am weirded out by them identifying as non-binary, it's more the timing of it all. How can you shoot up a queer club, kill 5 people and then come out and say that you yourself are a queer person? I've seen the kind of people they have been surrounded by their whole life, for example, their father (who is an extremely hateful man who when made aware of the crime Aldrich had committed was more worried about them not being queer rather than the fact that they had killed 5 people), and I could see where a queer person who is in a horrible condition in regards to their mental health could grow up with this immense hate toward themselves because they are the direct representation of what everyone around you hates and fears, but I'm still suspicious on whether or not this was a strategy by their part to not be horribly convicted or if it is actually true. 

At the end of the day, I would say the bigger issues here are homophobia and mental health. The LGBTQIA+ community has been constantly targeted by violent attacks like this one. Spaces created for the comfort of queer people are being destroyed by hatred and this has to stop, and the way I think mental health plays a role, in this case, is by the perpetrator, Aldrich, who had already threatened someone's life before this, that being their mother, the police came and left, no help was offered. This is the case of someone who is not mentally ok and needs help but isn't getting it. 

Finally, I would like to ask you, what you think about this case. Do you feel like this was bias-motivated, or just a mere coincidence? Do you think mental health played a bigger role in this? and lastly, Do you think that Aldrich stating that they go by they/them pronouns will affect his conviction in any way?

More information about the shooting:

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/21/1138131985/what-we-know-colorado-springs-lgbtq-club-shooting 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/20/us/colorado-springs-shooting-gay-nightclub 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/21/us/colorado-springs-club-q-shooting-monday

Aldrich's father's statement:

https://www.newsweek.com/anderson-lee-aldrichs-dad-was-scared-son-was-gay-after-club-q-shooting-1761960   

May Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Raymond Green Vance, Derrick Rump, and Ashley Green Paugh rest in peace.     

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies

    • I agree with you, in my opinion, this crime was biased. There is no way it wasn't considering their background. They most likely grew up surrounded by hatred, so much so that they felt like he had to kill queer people.

  • In my opinion, I believe that their poor mental health was one of, if not the biggest, reason that they did this. I feel this way because he was showing signs of violence with the bomb threats with his mother. Whether he was bias-motivated or not, I don't know. I also feel that mental health was the issue because of their father.  The fact that his father had no sympathy for the deaths of the people shows that he probably was a bad father that wasn't caring for his kid. I think that they could have started going by they/them pronouns to garner sympathy to try to get a lesser punishment.

    • I agree with you, mental health plays a bigger role in shootings or crimes in general. This person had already shown signs of instability,  and because of our society's prejudice towards mental health, they were unable to get the help they needed.

  • I think that mental health plays a bigger role in this case. I'm not really sure if it was bias-motivated or not. But that doesn't change that what happened is terrible. I think that it is important that everyone can get the help they need so we can't prevent cases like this.

  • I think that mental health is a bigger factor in this case. If he(they) has some sort of mental illness that could cause him(them) to break, and get angry, then that could basically explain a lot of what went on that day. When I first read what he(they) had done, and how he(they) came out with they/them pronouns, I thought that it was weird, but then thought about how he could be saying that to either get sympathy, or he(they) could be doing it to increase homophobia and spread fear among people who might already be afraid. 

    • I agree, they had already shown that they were not a stable person but they never got any help even though the authorities were called and they knew about their situation. And about your last comment, I kinda agree, I don't believe in spreading homophobia was their main goal, but it's totally something that they are doing; a lot of people who are against the LGBTQ community are seeing this event and putting the blame on them being non-binary and not mentally unstable. 

This reply was deleted.
eXTReMe Tracker