Anderson Lee Aldrich, the mass shooter who killed five people at the LGBTQ+ Club Q in Colorado and hurt dozens more, will spend the rest of his life in jail. He was given 55 concurrent life sentences after accepting a plea deal Tuesday on federal hate crime charges.
United States District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney accepted the plea agreement, sentencing Aldrich to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, to be followed by a 190-year sentence of imprisonment. "You went to this community's safe space and mass murdered people," said Sweeney, adding that it was appropriate to sentence him to life during Pride month which honors the LGBTQ community. "This community is much stronger than you, stronger than your armor and stronger than your weapons and sure as hell stronger than your hatred."
Aldrich killed Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance. His publicly-posted anti-gay and anti-transgender remarks, and a history of harassing gay people, made his motives clear in the wake of the attack. He was already convicted on state charges—convictions for which he faces 2,000 years imprisonment.
Aldrich claimed to be nonbinary, but his own lawyers refused to play along and at least one close friend said he was attempting to "troll" the system.
