Colorado Shooter Is Reportedly Grandson of MAGA Lawmaker, Has History of Domestic Violence
Late Saturday night, a 22-year-old man identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich allegedly killed five people and injured dozens more at the LGBTQ nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs. Aldrich, who’s currently in police custody, has also been identified by Heavy as the grandson of California state Assemblymember Randy Vopel, a pro-Trump Republican who likened the Jan. 6 insurrection that killed five to the Revolutionary War.
The extent of Aldrich’s relationship to his grandfather isn’t immediately clear, but tellingly, the Republican Party has spent the last several months in particular escalating their attacks on queer and trans people. In addition to Aldrich’s ties to a far-right elected official who glorified violence on the Capitol, he has a documented history of violence—but obtained an AR-15 nonetheless.
In 2021, Aldrich’s mother called the police on her son, reporting that he was threatening her with a homemade bomb and other weapons. Police responded to the threat by evacuating part of the neighborhood and engaging in a standoff with Aldrich, before he surrendered and was charged with five felony counts including kidnapping and felony menacing. More than two-thirds of mass shootings are domestic violence incidents or perpetrated by shooters with a history of domestic violence, a 2021 study found.
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According to the Washington Post, it’s not clear why local prosecutors declined to pursue charges in the case, and court records for the case were placed under seal, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports. Further, Aldrich seems to have skirted Colorado’s “red flag” gun law that allows authorities to confiscate guns from individuals with histories of mental illness or violence. Colorado Springs is notably in El Paso County, one of 2,000 counties nationwide that identify as “Second Amendment Sanctuaries.” The Associated Press notes that the county “appears especially hostile” to Colorado’s red flag law and went so far as to pass a 2019 resolution condemning the law.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/colorado-shooter-is-reportedly-grandson-of-maga-lawmaker-has-history-of-domestic-violence/ar-AA14nfZN
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