Mass shooting at Colorado LBGTQ nightclub

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goldfish21
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30 Nov 2022, 2:14 pm

Dox47 wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
Anyways, Dox47 started off saying he didn't particularly care (about the sexual orientation of the guy that stopped the attacker) and ended by saying he was just keeping things honest, which he was, so going on a rant about him somehow suggesting gay people wouldn't have been up to the task isn't very appropriate IMO.


Thank you, I appreciate the unexpected defense. I think you can see I was trying to anticipate that exact misunderstanding, but apparently wasn't clear enough.

:queen: 8)
^drag queen react


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01 Dec 2022, 12:05 am

The guy is rejecting something within himself. His family is LDS and conservative. I'm sure he's heard how it's unacceptable to be gay his entire life. That being said, so have a lot of other people. Many grow up, move away and leave that behind. Even if they can't move away from prejudices, most don't shoot up Gay Night Clubs. This guy is responsible for his actions.

I have a very hard time understanding these type scenarios. My family was firm, any kid in our family who threatened their mother would have been snatched up and had their asses handed to them (along with their walking papers). This kid should've been living in a tent city somewhere with a sling-shot for protection instead of a gun.


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Dox47
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01 Dec 2022, 4:33 am

Sweetleaf wrote:
There are responsible gun enthusiasts, who would certainly have a lot of criticisms towards gun nuts.


What is the difference?

Sweetleaf wrote:
Kind of seems like if this shooter had gotten in trouble for making bomb threats and weapons threats before, he should not have been allowed to legally purchase the guns he used in this shooting, but from what I have heard so far he did buy them legally....so what is up with that?


That is the question here, as this person sure seems like they should have been a prohibited purchaser based on that history, but so far no one is talking. Not only was it a felony level offense, but likely qualified as DV as the victim was the suspects' mother, and IIRC Colorado is a mandatory arrest state and DV is an instant loss of gun rights. I suspect a lot of people are going to look bad when the truth comes out, either law enforcement dropped the ball on the paperwork or some progressive criminal justice initiative likely shorted the system out somewhere and they're frantically trying to bury it.

Sweetleaf wrote:
Yet some people think anyone regardless of previous violent behavior should be able to get all the guns they want no matter what. That is the view I don't get...like they arent even willing to consider gun regulations, the only thing good enough for them is to allow even violent felons to get guns whenever they want.


Nobody believes that, the most I've seen is a restoration process for felons who've lost their gun rights after completing their sentences, that's a complete strawman position.


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04 Dec 2022, 2:12 am

Dox47 wrote:
Sweetleaf wrote:
There are responsible gun enthusiasts, who would certainly have a lot of criticisms towards gun nuts.
What is the difference?
As was explained to me by a gun owner:

• "Gun Nuts": Persons whose special interest is firearms and who are generally responsible with their use.  They may be hunters, collectors, competitive shooters, or even gunsmiths.

• "Nuts with Guns": Persons in possession of one or more firearms, and who may have undetected mental or emotional issues (i.e., addictions/alcoholism, delusions, narcissism, schizophrenia, et cetera), hold grudges against their victims (i.e., divorcees, incels, ex-employees, ex-lovers, expelled students, et cetera), or be fanatically obsessed with extreme hate-filled ideologies (i.e., political nationalism, racism, religious fundamentalism, sexism, or some combination thereof).


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08 Dec 2022, 10:39 pm

U.S. 2021 case against Colorado gay bar shooting suspect was dropped for lack of cooperation

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Authorities dropped a 2021 bomb threat case against the suspect in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting after family members refused to cooperate, the district attorney said Thursday.

El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen also said that Anderson Lee Aldrich tried to reclaim guns that were seized after the threat, but authorities did not return the weapons.

Allen spoke hours after a judge unsealed the case, which indicated that Aldrich threatened to kill relatives and to become the "next mass killer" more than a year before the nightclub attack that killed five people.

Aldrich's statements in the case, which was dropped over the summer, had raised questions about whether authorities could have used Colorado's "red flag" law to seize weapons from the suspect.

Judge Robin Chittum said the "profound" public interest in the case outweighed Aldrich's privacy rights. The judge added that scrutiny of judicial cases is "foundational to our system of government."

"The only way for that scrutiny to occur is for this to be unsealed," she said.

he judge's order to release the records comes after news organizations, including The Associated Press, sought to unseal the documents, and two days after AP published portions of the sealed documents that were verified with a law enforcement official.

The papers detail how Aldrich told frightened grandparents about firearms and bomb-making material in the grandparents' basement and vowed not to let them interfere with plans for Aldrich to be "the next mass killer" and "go out in a blaze."

Aldrich then pointed a Glock handgun at the grandparents as they pleaded for their lives and said, "You guys die today … I'm loaded and ready."

The documents also detailed how the grandparents fled for their lives and called 911 and how fear of a bomb blast prompted the evacuation of nearby homes.

Aldrich — who uses they/them pronouns and is nonbinary, according to their attorneys — holed up in their mother's home in a standoff with SWAT teams and warned about having armor-piercing rounds and a determination to "go to the end."

Eventually, a barefoot Aldrich came out with hands raised and surrendered.

The law enforcement official who confirmed the documents to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to talk about the papers.

Aldrich also was the subject of a tip received by the FBI a day before the bomb threat. Agents closed out the case just weeks later.

Under Colorado law, records are automatically sealed when a case is dropped and defendants are not prosecuted, as happened in Aldrich's 2021 case. Once sealed, officials cannot acknowledge that the records exist, and the process to unseal the documents initially happens behind closed doors with no docket to follow and an unnamed judge.

"This is one of the strangest hearings I think I've ever had," Chittum said. "I'm having a hearing about a case that none of us is to recognize."

Chittum ruled despite objections from the suspect's attorney and mother.

Public defender Joseph Archambault argued that while the public has an interest in the case, Aldrich's right to a fair trial was paramount.

"This will make sure there is no presumption of innocence," Archambault said.

During Thursday's hearing, Aldrich sat at the defense table looking straight ahead or down at times and did not appear to show any reaction when their mother's lawyer asked that the case remain sealed.

An attorney for Aldrich's mother argued that unsealing the case would increase the likelihood that Laura Voepel would suffer harm harassment, intimidation or retaliation.

Aldrich was formally charged Tuesday with 305 criminal counts, including hate crimes and murder, in the Nov. 19 shooting at Club Q, a sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in mostly conservative Colorado Springs.


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09 Dec 2022, 7:41 pm

This guy needed to be removed from society a full year before this happened . And this represents the functional part of our justice system. Have personally experienced corrupt officers and assistant district attorneys working in cooperation with them. Involving at least one homicide.And ongoing burglaries in a partially inhabited areas by people associated with them . ( there is NO exaggeration in the preceding written Words.)
So it’s about time the legal system presented itself in a responsible way. Regarding matters like these.
After reading the above posting regarding unsealed records concerning Aldrich , it just made me feel Ill.


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13 Dec 2022, 12:27 pm

So, yet another known wolf that could have been handled with existing legal tools, what a shocker.


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13 Dec 2022, 12:30 pm

FBI asking about videos and racist website in connection with Colorado shooting

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The FBI is asking about two websites in connection with last month’s shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado that left five dead and 17 others injured, a former neighbor and friend of the suspect told NBC News.

The former neighbor, Xavier Kraus, said an FBI agent asked him about the two websites at an FBI field office in Colorado Springs last Thursday afternoon after an agent called him earlier that day.

One of the websites, Kraus said he told investigators, was created by Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who was charged Tuesday with 305 criminal counts, including first-degree murder and bias-motivated crimes, in the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs shortly before midnight on Nov. 19. Aldrich was subdued by three club patrons shortly after the shooting began and was then arrested by authorities.

The website allegedly created by Aldrich is a forum-type “free speech” site where people have anonymously posted racist and antisemitic memes, language and videos.

A video on the homepage titled “Wrong Targets” advocates for killing civilians as part of a larger effort to “assassinate the elites at the top” and “cleanse” society.

A link on the homepage that reads “Visit Our Brother Site!” directs to a webpage with links to four short videos, each uploaded in two different formats, that appear to have been posted in the hours leading up to the shooting.

Two of the videos show the inside of a Toyota at night; in one, the dashboard clock reads 11:44, and the person recording the video says “OK” before ending it. The videos appear to have gone up from 9:28 p.m. to 11:43 p.m. local time on the night of the shooting. While it is unclear who recorded and posted the videos, one frame in the 11:44 video shows a reflection in the rearview mirror that resembles Aldrich.

Aldrich arrived at Club Q around 11:55 p.m. in a gold Toyota Highlander, police said in an affidavit released Wednesday, and local police began receiving 911 calls about a shooting at at 11:56 p.m.

The “brother site” previously hosted video of the mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in May that left 10 people dead, according to an archive of the page that was viewed by NBC News. Links to the site were quickly shared on the extremist sites 4chan and 8kun (formerly 8chan) in the days after the shooting, where the site and video were discussed.

Kraus said that most of the posts currently on the site, including the racist content, were not there when he visited it with Aldrich. A message at the top of the site’s homepage states, “There are two Rules. NO CP and NO SPAMMING,” with “CP” presumably referring to child pornography.

Kraus said the agents asked whether Aldrich posted the “Wrong Targets” video on the homepage. Kraus said he told them that the video’s placement on the site “was something that only an admin could do.” He knew this because he had previously visited the site with Aldrich, but he was unable to confirm that Aldrich was the one to post the video.

The FBI also asked Kraus about the “brother site” that included the video links and whether he knew anything about it or what was on it, he said. Kraus said an agent unsuccessfully tried to access that site on a laptop while Kraus was at the field office, and a subsequent text message between Kraus and the agent also shows the agent was unable to open it at the time.

One of the four videos appears to quickly pan around the inside of an apartment. Kraus confirmed that the apartment shown was the apartment that Aldrich had lived in with their mother when Aldrich and Kraus were neighbors.

After listening to the voice in the videos, Kraus said it “sounds very, very similar” to Aldrich, but he could not confirm this with certainty.

When asked about the “professional seven sins” remark, Kraus said that he and Aldrich were both familiar with an online community called Se7en Sins Gaming Community, but Kraus didn’t know the meaning of the remark. One of the administrators of this online community goes by the name “Professional.”

If this remark was meant to refer to the online gaming community and is tied to the alleged Club Q gunman, it would not be the first time such a reference was made by a mass shooter. Brenton Tarrant, who in 2019 shot and killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, said during a livestream of the shootings, “subscribe to PewDiePie,” a reference to a viral meme about a popular YouTuber who posted videos of himself playing video games. A livestream of the shooting was posted to 8chan, eventually leading to the site’s ban in New Zealand and rebranding to 8kun.

Less than one month later, a shooter at the Poway Synagogue in California posted a largely identical manifesto to the Christchurch shooter on 8chan shortly before the attack. Investigators said the shooter tried and failed to set up a livestream of the shooting.

Kraus said that he has felt a “tremendous amount of guilt” since the Club Q shooting. He said that he did not challenge Aldrich when they made racist or homophobic statements, including stating that they “hate fa***ts,” because Aldrich was “an angry person” who also owned guns.

“I know that this wasn’t something that I did, but, I don’t know how to explain it, I feel absolutely horrible knowing that I knew somebody and got to know somebody and made friends with somebody that could go in and do this horrible thing,” Kraus said. “There’s some nights I just cry, because it could have been me, it could have been, who knows what could have happened — it’s just terrifying.


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22 Feb 2023, 6:15 pm

Detective testifies Club Q shooter ran Neo-Nazi website, frequently used gay slurs

Quote:
The 22-year-old accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs in November ran a neo-Nazi website and used gay and racial slurs while gaming online, a police detective testified Wednesday.

Anderson Lee Aldrich used racial slurs while gaming, posted an image of a rifle scope trained on a gay pride parade and used a homophobic slur when referring to someone who was gay, Detective Rebecca Joines testified on the first day of a three-day trial to determine if there's enough evidence to warrant hate crime charges against Aldrich.

Aldrich, who wore an orange jail jumpsuit at the hearing and cried at times, identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they and them. Joines said another witness told investigators that Aldrich said their mother, Laura Voepel, is nonbinary and forced them to go to LGBTQ clubs.

Earlier Wednesday, another detective testified about the two men credited with stopping the attack.

Detective Ashton Gardner told the courtroom that surveillance video from inside the club showed that a Navy sailor, Petty Officer Second Class Thomas James, grabbed the red-hot barrel of Aldrich's AR-style rifle in an effort to wrench it away and burned his hand. He said James and Aldrich then tumbled off a landing and began struggling over Aldrich's handgun, which Aldrich fired at least once, shooting James in the ribs.

As James was grappling with Aldrich, Army veteran Richard Fierro rushed over to help, grabbing the rifle and throwing it, Gardner said. Fierro then used the handgun to beat Aldrich, telling officers, "I kept hitting him until you came."

Aldrich shook during the testimony about the people they shot and cried while being led out of court for the lunch break.

James, who issued a statement days after the attack saying he "simply wanted to save the family that I found," didn't appear to be at the hearing. But Fierro, who sustained scrapes and bruises, sat in the back row. His daughter's boyfriend was killed in the attack.

After the gunfire ended and police arrived, Aldrich tried to pin the shooting on one of the patrons who subdued them while also claiming that the shooter was hiding, Officer Connor Wallick testified. Officers didn't believe it and shortly afterward confirmed that Aldrich, 22, was the shooter, he said.

The night of the attack wasn't Aldrich's first visit to the club. An identification scanner showed that Aldrich had been there six times before the shooting, Detective Rebecca Joines testified. Aldrich's attorney also revealed during a recent hearing that Aldrich was at the club earlier on the night of the shooting for about 1 1/2 hours, but he didn't say why or elaborate.


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