Shooter pleads guilty to 5 counts of murder, hate crimes in Colorado gay nightclub killings | CBC News

The person accused of entering a Colorado gay nightclub clad in body armour and opening fire with an AR-15-style rifle, killing five people and wounding several others, pleaded guilty to murder charges on Monday at an arraignment.

Monday’s plea by Anderson Lee Aldrich comes just seven months after the Nov. 19, 2002, shooting and spares victims’ families and survivors a long and potentially painful trial. The plea entered during a court hearing follows a series of jailhouse phone calls from Aldrich to The Associated Press expressing remorse and the intention to face the consequences for the shooting.

Aldrich pleaded guilty to five counts of murder. The defendant faces life in prison on the murder charges under the plea agreement.

The agreement also calls for Aldrich to plead guilty to 46 counts of attempted murder and two counts of bias-motivated crime.

“I intentionally and after deliberation caused the death of each victim,” Aldrich told Judge Michael McHenry.

‘His mom and I will never be the same’

The line to get through security early Monday snaked through the large plaza outside the courthouse as victims and others queued up to attend the hearing. One man wore a T-shirt saying “Loved Always & Never Forgotten,” in honour of victim Daniel Davis Aston, a 28-year-old bartender and entertainer at Club Q who was killed in the shooting.

Aston’s father was among the family members of those who were killed who delivered tearful statements to the court.

“He was kind-hearted, cheerful, sensitive in spirit and a gifted poet,” Jeff Aston said. “He had a contagious smile and burning blue eyes.… His mom and I will never be the same.”

Aldrich mostly looked down as the victims spoke.

The other people killed in the shooting were Kelly Loving, 40; Derrick Rump, 38; Ashley Paugh, 34; and Raymond Green Vance, 22.

Allowed to purchase guns despite previous arrest

The attack at Club Q came more than a year after Aldrich had been arrested for threatening their grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass killer,” leading to a standoff with SWAT officers that was livestreamed on Facebook.

But charges were ultimately dropped after Aldrich’s mother and grandparents, the victims in the case, refused to co-operate with prosecutors, evading efforts to serve them with subpoenas to testify, according to court documents unsealed after the shooting.

Other relatives told a judge they feared Aldrich would hurt their grandparents if released, painting a picture of an isolated, violent person who did not have a job and was given $30,000 that was spent largely on the purchase of 3D printers to make guns, the records showed.

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While some guns were seized by police after the confrontation, there was nothing to stop Aldrich from legally purchasing more firearms, raising questions immediately after the shooting about whether authorities should have sought a red flag order to prevent such purchases.

Aldrich told AP in one of the interviews from jail they were on a “very large plethora of drugs” and abusing steroids at the time of the attack.

But they did not answer directly regarding the hate crimes charges. When asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, Aldrich said only that was “completely off base.” Aldrich’s attorneys, who have not disputed Aldrich’s role in the shooting, have also pushed back on hate being the reason.