The mass shooter who killed five at a Colorado LGBT nightclub in 2022 has pleaded guilty to fifty federal hate crimes and 24 firearms violations.
Anderson Aldrich entered the plea on Tuesday as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors in order to avoid the death penalty. The 24-year-old faces a 190-year sentence on the charges related to the Club Q shooting.
Aldrich had already pleaded guilty to state charges and is currently serving five life sentences. US District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney must still accept the plea agreement. She said she would wait to hear statements from victims at the Tuesday hearing before making the decision.
In June 2023, Aldrich received five life sentences as well as 46 consecutive 48-year sentences for state attempted murder charges. The attacker pleaded no contest to hate crimes in that case. Aldrich, who lawyers say identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they and them, visited Club Q multiple times before the attack and had previously expressed hatred for police, LGBT people and minorities, according to prosecutors.
In a statement in January, prosecutors called Aldrich’s targeting of Club Q “a wilful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated attack”.
Rawr
Article URL : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1001vmmp1lo