Club Q Shooter faces federal hate crime charges but no death penalty, survivors say it’s not enough
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Convicted Club Q shooter, Anderson Aldrich is now facing 55 federal hate crime charges and 21 additional federal charges related to the shooting.
Aldrich is currently serving five life sentences without parole after pleading guilty to five counts of murder in the first degree and 46 counts of attempted murder in the first degree. Anderson also pleaded no contest to two bias-motivated crimes.
Federal court documents show that the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed five hate crime charges against Aldrich for the five people killed in the shooting.
They filled an additional 50 charges for those injured or at Club Q at the time of the shooting. All of those charges were filed as hate crimes, since the U.S. Attorney’s Office says Aldrich acted, "because of the actual and perceived sexual orientation and gender identity of any person."
The additional 21 charges come from Aldrich knowingly using and carrying firearms in a "crime of violence," according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Court documents say that federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in this case, a decision that leaves survivors of Aldrich's shooting extremely upset.
"You slap the piece of paper down and just told them, Hey, you know what? You're grounded for the rest of your life. Go to your room." explains Ashtin Gamblin, who was shot 9 times shortly after Aldrich entered the bar on November 19, 2022.
Her frustration stems from new federal court documents that indicate that federal prosecutors have arrived at a plea deal with Aldrich's defense team.
It calls for multiple life sentences, and a consecutive sentence of 190 years in federal prison, in return for dropping the possible death penalty.
"What are we going to do try and set some sort of record? Setting a record for a number of years does nobody any good," said Gamblin. "You're legitimately saying the worst you're going to do for ending people's lives in a mass shooting is to go carry out your [time] in a jail cell, where you can still have amenities like TV and you still get to see your family and you still get to see your friends and have visitors," she explained.
Gamblin adds that other traditionally liberal states like New York, similar to Colorado, have authorized a death penalty case for the 18-year-old who was responsible for a mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, where prosecutors say he specifically targeted all black victims in May of 2022.
It is worth noting that only 16 executions have been carried out on the federal level since the death penalty was reinstated in 1988.
The process is also a lengthy one, with the Death Penalty Information Center reporting that there are roughly 40 inmates waiting on "Death row". The most recent federal execution was administered in January of 2021 after that person had been convicted in October of 2000.
