“There is no reason why he should have had access to an assault rifle … especially for someone who has been quoted saying ‘I’m going to be the next mass shooter.”̵…
By Jim Mustain, Colleen Slevin and Bernard Condon | Associated Press
But charges against Aldrich for the actions that day were dropped for reasons the district attorney has refused to explain due to the case being sealed and there was no record showing guns were seized under Colorado’s “red flag” law with similarly no explanation from the sheriff. All of it could be one of the most glaring missed warnings in America’s litany of mass violence because, just a year and a half later, Aldrich was free to carry out the plan to become “the next mass killer.
Why apparently nothing was done to stop Aldrich since coming onto law enforcement’s radar last year is a question that has haunted this picturesque Rockies city of 480,000 since the shooting, even as loved ones have begun burying the victims and the shuttered Club Q has become a shrine surrounded by hundreds of bouquets, wreaths and rainbow flags.
And even though Allen said during a news conference soon after the nightclub shooting that he “hoped at some point in the near future” to share more about the 2021 incident, he has yet to do so. AP and other news organizations have gone to court seeking to unseal the entire case file, a request scheduled to be heard later this week.
But an AP review shows no record that Aldrich’s grandparents or mother went to a judge to get such an order. And there’s no record the agency that arrested Aldrich, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, did either. Allen, the district attorney, also criticized the red flag law while running for the office in 2020, tweeting that it is “a poor excuse to take people’s guns and is not designed in any way to address real concrete mental health concerns.” He has noted since the shooting that DAs don’t have the authority to initiate such seizures.
In both a mugshot and first court appearance, the 6-foot-4, 260-pound Aldrich appeared slumped with deep bruises and cuts on a fleshy face. It was a stark contrast to the many smiling photos as a youngster on the mother’s Facebook page that belied a turbulent life marked by domestic violence, bullying and family run-ins with the law.
The alleged shooter, born Nicholas Franklin Brink, was so embarrassed by the father, according to 2016 Texas court documents, that weeks before turning 16, the teen filed for a formal name change to Anderson Lee Aldrich.
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