Washington: The father of the suspect at the centre of America’s latest LGBTQ nightclub massacre has expressed alarm about the rampage, saying he got scared wondering: “shit, is he gay?”
Three days after allegedly killing five people and injuring 17 others during a mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Anderson Lee Aldrich made their first court appearance on Wednesday (US time), sitting in a wheelchair and slumped to the side with facial injuries and apparent difficulty in speaking.
The 22-year-old, whose lawyers say identifies as non-binary and goes by the pronouns they/them, had been in hospital since being beaten into submission by patrons at the club, and now faces preliminary charges of first-degree murder and bias-motivated crime – Colorado’s version of a hate felony.
While Aldrich was held without bail by the judge, new details about his troubled past began to emerge, including revelations from his estranged father, Aaron Franklin Brink.
In an interview with US TV network CBS 8, Brink, a mixed martial arts-fighter-turned-porn-actor and a self-described “conservative Republican” said he was contacted by Aldrich’s defence attorney after the shooting.
“There was a shooting involving multiple people, and then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar,” Brink said in an interview outside his San Diego home. “And I think, ‘oh my God, is he gay?’ I got scared, ‘Shit, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, ‘Phhhewww…’”
“I am a Mormon, I am a conservative Republican, and we don’t do gay… My opinion about gays is that it’s not OK. I think we should stand up against homosexuality.”
The Mormon Church has confirmed that Aldrich was a member but had not been active for some time. Ahead of their hearing, attorneys for the suspect submitted a court filing stating they identify as non-binary.
The Colorado shooter’s dad on finding out his son murdered people: “They started telling me about the incident, a shooting… And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I got scared, ‘Shit, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, phew… I am a conservative Republican.” (@CBS8) pic.twitter.com/7Zw4vpLtjE
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) November 23, 2022
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R&I. -TXPAT
