JUST IN: Accused Colorado Shooter Charged With First Degree Murder and Hate Crimes
The 22-year-old man accused of a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay bar has been charged with five counts of first degree murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, according to a report by CNN.
Anderson Aldrich allegedly entered Club Q shortly before midnight Saturday evening carrying an AR-15 style rifle and a handgun and opened fire, killing five and injuring at least 25. A bartender who was working that night described how two “very, very, very brave” bar patrons fought back against Aldrich and stopped the slaughter, holding him down until police arrived a few minutes later.
CNN correspondent Rosa Flores reported from Colorado Springs after reviewing the records filed with the El Paso County Court. The accused shooter was facing multiple murder and hate crime charges, she reported, but remained hospitalized from his injuries during the shooting, and the Colorado Springs Police Chief told CNN that he had not yet been booked to be formally charged.
The court documents showed that Aldrich would be facing “five counts of first degree murder and five counts of bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury,” said Flores, pointing out that Colorado had passed its bias-motivated crime law in 2021.
According to this law, “A person commits a bias-motivated crime if” they commit one of a list of eligible crimes “with the intent to intimidate or harass another person in whole or in part because that person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation.”
“Why” this happened was “the question that everybody in this community has,” said Flores, and the district attorney had previously said the shooting was being investigated “through the lens of a hate crime.”
Five people had already died, Flores noted, and some of the injured were “still fighting for their lives in the hospital.” If any of them were to not survive, then more charges against the shooter are expected to be added.
Flores added that the police chief had said that neither the suspect nor his mother have made any statements to police.
Watch above via CNN.
