Department of Justice Decides Against Seeking Federal Death Penalty in Colorado Club Q Mass Shooting

On January 16, 2024, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that pros­e­cu­tors reached a plea deal with Anderson Aldrich, the indi­vid­ual respon­si­ble for killing five and wound­ing dozens of oth­ers in the November 19, 2022, shoot­ing of Colorado’s Club Q, an LGBTQ+ bar in Colorado Springs. The United States Attorney’s Office ​“alleges that Aldrich com­mit­ted this attack because of actu­al or per­ceived sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion and gen­der iden­ti­ty of any per­son.” Aldrich will plead guilty to fifty fed­er­al hate crime charges and twen­ty-four firearm vio­la­tion charges in exchange for a 190-year sen­tence with addi­tion­al life sen­tences while avoid­ing the death penal­ty. In June 2023, Aldrich was sen­tenced to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole under Colorado state law after they pled guilty to mur­der charges and forty-six counts of attempt­ed mur­der. Colorado abol­ished the death penal­ty in March 2020.

The DOJ’s announce­ment of the plea deal comes days after it announced it will seek a death sen­tence for Payton Gendron, respon­si­ble for the May 2022 racial­ly moti­vat­ed super­mar­ket shoot­ing in Buffalo, NY. Mr. Gendron is the first per­son for whom Attorney General Merrick Garland has autho­rized a death sen­tence. The DOJ pro­vid­ed no expla­na­tion for the dif­fer­ent deci­sion in Aldrich’s case. Aldrich, like Mr. Gendron, was young at the time of the crime and charged with state and fed­er­al hate crimes in con­nec­tion with a mass shooting.

For some of Aldrich’s vic­tims, the DOJ’s deci­sion is dis­heart­en­ing. Ashtin Gamblin, who was shot and seri­ous­ly injured in the shoot­ing told pros­e­cu­tors that Aldrich should face the death penal­ty. Michael Anderson, a bar­tender at Club Q who was work­ing dur­ing the shoot­ing, told the Associated Press that fed­er­al charges should act as a deter­rent, by ​“send­ing a mes­sage to peo­ple who want to com­mit vio­lent acts against this com­mu­ni­ty, and [let­ting] them know this is not some­thing that is swept away or over­looked… No mat­ter how much jus­tice is served statewide or fed­er­al­ly, it can’t undo bullets fired.”

In a series of calls with the Associated Press, Aldrich report­ed­ly admit­ted being ​“on a ​‘very large pletho­ra of drugs’ and abus­ing steroids at the time of the attack.” Aldrich also told reporters that it is ​“com­plete­ly off base” to call the attack a hate crime. However, in February 2022, state pros­e­cu­tors revealed in court that Aldrich ran a web­site that post­ed a ​“neo-Nazi white suprema­cist” shoot­ing train­ing video. A detec­tive also tes­ti­fied that Aldrich’s gam­ing friends told him that they had ​“expressed hatred for police, LGBTQ+ peo­ple and minori­ties, and used racist and homophobic slurs.”