COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Prosecutors and victims of the Club Q massacre spoke at length Monday about the plea agreement reached in the case of the 23-year-old shooter who killed five people and injured 17 others last November, describing the perpetrator as a “coward” who tried to self-identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community to avoid federal hate crime charges.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23 – who still identified as nonbinary in court Monday – pleaded guilty earlier in the day to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder – one for each person who was at Club Q the night of the mass shooting. Aldrich also pleaded no contest to two hate crimes, one a felony and the other a misdemeanor.

“Today marks an important step in the recovery journey for victims and family members and for our community at the foot of America’s mountain,” said 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael J. Allen in opening remarks Monday. The plea deal, he said, meant there wouldn’t be “a prolonged court process that would have prevented the victims and their family members from starting that healing process.”

Allen also thanked those who remained steadfast in seeking justice throughout the seven-month ordeal, saying the painful process wasn’t something chosen by the victims. “It was something that was thrust upon you by one person filled with hate.”

‘He’s a coward’: Prosecutors speak after Club Q shooter pleads guilty

Painting a picture of someone seeking out to commit terror, Allen described how the shooter planned the events of that fateful night. First, by intentionally evading background checks for the weapons they used during the attack (Allen said the handgun frame used in the mass shooting had already been purchased by they mother, which allowed the defendant to escape any background check that would have been required had they lawfully purchased the firearm), then by running a website “dedicated to hate of minorities and members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

Allen also revealed Monday that all of the gun parts used by the shooter inside Club Q were similarly unserialized, “meaning he evaded, effectively, all ATF background check requirements for the weapons that he possessed on November 19 and carried into the club to commit his attack.”

The shooter, Allen said, also armed themselves “in a way that indicted he knew what he was about to do was wrong and that he was willing to kill as many people as possible,” and had even drawn diagrams of Club Q – plans that amounted to those used during battle.

“That evidence shows his intent,” Allen said. “He intended to evade law enforcement as much as he possibly could. He intended to evade background check processes to keep his plans secret as long as you could.”

While no longer a law in the state of Colorado after it was abolished in 2020, the district attorney said in his remarks that the death penalty still matters – especially in a case like this.

“The threat of the death penalty in the federal system are a big part of what motivated this defendant to take this plea,” Allen said, arguing Aldrich may have self-identified as nonbinary as a defense tactic to avoid being charged with bias-motivated crimes.

“I thought it was, again, another mark of his cowardice,” Allen said. “I think he was trying to latch on to something to avoid the bias-motivated charges, but also trying to avoid potentially what could happen in the federal system.”

The FBI on Monday confirmed it had opened a federal investigation and that hate crime charges were being considered.

Should the shooter be convicted at the federal level of first-degree murder, they could face lethal injection.

“Undoubtedly, both the fact that he decided to take a plea in this case, plus that idea that he was trying to mitigate the bias-motivated charges or the hate charges, I think, really, again, strike to his cowardice,” the district attorney said. “He was willing to carry out the most horrific attacks on unsuspecting victims, and yet didn’t have the courage to stand up and face the potential most serious sentence that he could possibly face.”

“I want you to know that we will never forget”

Several other law enforcement officials also spoke during Monday’s news conference. Among them was Adrian Vasquez, the Colorado Springs Chief of Police.

“Today is not about the defendant, but about the strength of the victims and the justice being sought for them and for our community as a whole,” Vasquez said.

The chief spoke not only of the five victims in the shooting – Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, and Derrick Rump – but also of the bravery of the two men who stopped the shooter before they were able to commit more carnage.

Vasquez spoke about how Thomas James – who serves in the U.S. Navy – engaged the suspect after being shot, fighting them before Richard Fierro – a veteran of the U.S. Army – joined in to subdue the shooter. Both, along with Drea Norman, were able to stop further bloodshed from happening that night, Vasquez said.

“Later, Thomas James, after laying on an ambulance gurney suffering from the wounds of gunshot, saw another victim who was severely injured and gave up his gurney for that victim. If that isn’t inspiring, I don’t know what is,” the chief said.

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Vasquez also revealed Monday he has received a formal request from the U.S. Attorney’s Office that they do not share any documents, evidence of videos due to their active investigation, and vowed to release those documents to the public once the federal investigation concludes.

“We understand that the families of those killed in the club to shootings will never get their loved ones back. And those injured will never forget what they went through what they saw or what they felt. But I want to you know that we will never forget.”

“This is the reason why hate must be conquered”

For Nic Grzecka, the owner of Club Q, Monday’s announcement meant putting part of the painful process of healing after such a horrific tragedy behind him.

“This horrific person will go to prison for the rest of their lives,” Grzecka said, but “there’s nothing that can fill the voids and holes that have that have been left by his actions.”

Though there has been much pain over the past seven months, there’s also been moments of light, Grzecka said.

He mentioned the days and weeks after the shooting when he would spend a lot of time at the memorial site and would overhear people that had never stepped a foot inside Club Q.

“And I remember parents bringing their children there and saying, ‘This is the reason why you must not believe…—This is the reason why hate must be conquered.’”

It’s those words, he said, that were a catalyst for him to decide to reopen Club Q after the massacre, even if not all return due to the trauma the shooting left behind.

“But there’s also the stories – the 20 years of what Club Q had done. There are the times when people have showed up at the front door waiting for Club Q to open with trash bags, because they had been kicked out of their homes and they didn’t know where else to go,” Grzecka said. “Tens of thousands of people have made their friends there, they’ve reconciled within themselves their feelings of sexuality, their feelings of gender differences.”

Grzecka said it’s stories like those that show why it’s important for Club Q to remain open – especially in Colorado Springs, a city of 484,000 people which has remained a conservative haven among a growing shift in social norms and attitudes.

“Unfortunately, even with this ending today, the mission of hate isn’t ending. There are still parents that don’t understand when their children are feeling different, when they’re feeling that they are in the wrong bodies, or that they’re feeling that they are liking the same sex.”

While he said he’s received a great amount of support from the community, the owner of Club Q also lamented the wave of hate the massacre brought to the establishment.

“We received hundreds of emails – hundreds of emails – stating that our heroes had stopped God’s work and that there should have been more people killed in this club,” Grzecka remembered.

But, ultimately, he said, it was the input of thousands of people – previous customers and strangers from abroad – that helped him reconsider against shutting down the club.

“Hate cannot win. This cannot stop us. This cannot be what defines Club Q,” Grzecka said. “And so this person, this act, is not what’s going to end Club Q and prevent generations or the next generation from having their safe space, their place to find their friends, their chosen family, their feeling of belonging.”

“It’s not enough closure. Not even close.”

The parents of Daniel Aston, Sabrina and Jeff Aston, also delivered a few remarks Monday, hours after the plea deal had been announced.

Both said that even though the plea deal wasn’t going to bring Daniel back, they were at least glad that part of the journey toward healing was over.

“I just felt hollow,” said Jeff Aston, describing what it felt like to walk out of the courtroom Monday morning. “It’s not enough. Not even close. I hope they (the federal government) do press charges and I hope we get a death penalty out of this because even that is more than this monster deserves.”

Still, Sabrina said, Daniel would have forgiven the shooter for killing him. “He was that kind of a person,” she remembered. “Daniel believed in love. He loved Club Q and it was his other family,” she said. “I think we need to rebuild. I think Danny would want that.”

‘It’s not enough closure’: Families of victims speak after Club Q shooter pleads guilty