Club Q shooter pleads guilty to 74 federal charges, sentenced to life in prison

Updated at 4:09 p.m. on Tuesday June 18, 2024

The mass shooter who killed five people and injured 17 others at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub pleaded guilty Tuesday to 74 federal charges.

The plea agreement, overturning an earlier not guilty plea, carries 55 life sentences and 190 years in prison.

Among the federal charges against Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24 — who uses both genders — were 50 hate crime charges. This sentence is in addition to five consecutive life sentences handed down in a court case last summer. Aldrich also pleaded guilty during that case.

“You targeted this community where she lives and breathes,” U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney told Aldrich after accepting their plea.

Tuesday's sentencing concludes the federal investigation into the Nov. 19, 2022, attack, which saw Aldrich enter Club Q around midnight and fire an AR-15-style rifle into the crowd.

The shooting killed Daniel Aston, 28; Raymond Green Vance, 22; Ashley Paugh, 35; Derrick Croup, 38 years old; and Kelly Loving, 40.

Several survivors and family members of the shooting victims asked the Sweeney Courthouse Tuesday to reject the death penalty plea deal.

“I don’t believe they should be allowed to live,” said Jeff Aston, whose son Daniel was fatally shot while working as a bartender at Club Q.

Aldrich told the court they were now taking at least five medications prescribed by a prison psychologist and that doctors had diagnosed them with a range of mental disorders, from depression and substance use disorders to post-stress syndrome. -traumatic and generalized anxiety disorder.

Aldrich said they were not taking any antipsychotic medication.

Defense attorneys described Aldrich as the product of an abusive upbringing, someone radicalized by the Internet and warped by drug addiction.

This is a developing story and will be updated