The mass shooter who pleaded guilty to slaughtering five people at Club Q, a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub, and wounding 19 others with an AR-15 style assault rifle last year has been sentenced by a judge to life in prison, including over 2200 years behind bars.
“Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23, was sentenced Monday to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the 2022 massacre at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado,” CNN reports.
“Judge Michael McHenry also sentenced Aldrich to an additional 2,208 years in prison for the attempted murder charges. Aldrich also received a four-year sentence for bias-motivated charges, which are akin to hate-crime charges in other states.”
Colorado does not have the death penalty.
Unarmed patrons in the club took Aldrich down.
Cheryl Norton, whose daughter Ashtin Gamblin survived after being shot nine times, urged Judge McHenry, “Please your honor, I’m pleading with you: Lock this animal away to the depths of hell.”
Extremism expert Mark Pitcavage on Monday noted Aldrich “had prominently featured on his website an accelerationist white supremacist video urging killings and terrorist attacks.”
Calling it “one of the worst mass killings in Colorado history,” NBC News adds that “Aldrich, 23, who identifies as nonbinary and uses Mx. Aldrich, walked into the popular Club Q on Nov. 19, 2022, and opened fire. The shooter was charged with 323 criminal counts including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault and bias-motivated crimes.”
Other family members of the victims also addressed the court during sentencing.
Jeff Aston, the father of Daniel Aston, 28, said his son was a gifted poet with a contagious smile.
“A positive force has been taken out of the world. He was in the prime of his life. He was happy, he had hopes, dreams and plans that will never be realized,” Jeff Aston said of his son, Daniel, 28. “Losing him has caused us incredible grief and sadness.”
Adriana Vance, mother of Raymond Green Vance, 22, told the court, “This man doesn’t deserve to go on. What matters now is that he never sees the sun rise or a sunset.”
Vance, NBC added, “described her son as a kind, loving and gentle man who touched many people.”
“He was always there for his family and friends and people he didn’t even know.”
Watch this ABC News report below or at this link.