Colorado LGBTQ Shooting

Club Q is an adult oriented gay & lesbian nightclub in Colorado Springs where theme nights are hosted such as karaoke, drag shows, and DJ’s. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22 years old, opened fire on Club Q this past weekend on Saturday, November 19, 2022. In this massacre, five people were killed and nineteen people were injured. Aldrich grew up with possession of guns and was always very proud of his ownership. Aldrich also always had a hatred and dislike towards people in the LGBTQ and would use derogatory terms to them. This combination of hatred towards the LGBTQ and pride in his ownership of guns led to this shooting. Aldrich walked into Club Q with an assault rifle and a handgun and immediately started shooting. Many shots went off, Aldrich hoping to kill as many people as possible. However, Aldrich was stopped early by a former army veteran, Richard Fierro, who was there celebrating a birthday with his family. Fierro tackled Aldrich onto the ground and further prevented more deaths from happening. After this night, Aldrich was sent to El Paso County Jail and is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of bias-motivated crime-causing bodily injury by state prosecutor. Overall, shootings have increased heavily over these past couple years and most of them are group targeted. Hate crimes like this shooting have led to many deaths and society as a whole is being negatively impacted. Given the frequency of these massacres, there must be steps taken by the government to protect marginalized communities from hate crimes.