Colorado Springs shooting updates: Anderson Lee Aldrich and Laura Voepel caught on video in airport clas

A 2019 bill that allows judges in Colorado to prevent people who pose a “significant risk” to themselves or others passed the state legislature without a single Republican vote in support.

The so-called “red flag” law was signed into law by Governor Jared Polis, marking one of the most significant gun reform measures passed by state lawmakers in the years after a 2012 mass shooting inside a Colorado movie theatre that killed 12 people and injured 70 others.

But the sheriff’s office in the county where a deadly shooting at an LGBT+ club this week left five people dead, officers have not used the law once.

The 2019 law faced overwhelming opposition from not only GOP lawmakers but also sheriff’s offices across the state – including in El Paso County, where five people were fatally shot and 18 others were injured inside a Colorado Springs LGBT+ club on 19 November.

One year earlier, the suspect accused of immediately opening fire into the club that night was arrested on felony menacing and kidnapping charges, which were later dropped.

Not only did the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office not pursue an order to seize firearms from the suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich — the county has never once initiated a seizure.

A suspect accused of killing five people inside a LGBT+ nightclub and the suspect’s mother allegedly used racist slurs towards a Hispanic family and a Black man during a flight to Denver in July.

A cell phone video from an airline passenger obtained by local news outlet KDVR Fox 31 appears to show mass shooting suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich and Aldrich’s mother Laura Voepel during an airport confrontation on 31 July.

Maria Martinez told the outlet that she began filming after Aldrich used a racist slur towards her as they left the plane.

As she continued to film them, a person believed to be Aldrich tells her: “You keep following me and I’m going to f*** you up.”

An interview with the father of the suspect accused of killing five people inside a LGBT+ nightclub in Colorado Springs has received significant international attention, after Aaron Brink appeared to express relief that his child is not gay and apologised to the families of the victims.

Mr Brink said Anderson Lee Aldrich was born in San Diego in 2000 at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women.

Aldrich changed their name following their father’s controversial appearance on the reality TV programme Intervention as well as Mr Brink’s acting career in several adult films.

Mr Brink said he currently works as a mixed martial arts coach; he said he taught his child how to fight.

He also said that he is a Mormon; a spokesperson for the Church of Latter Day Saints recently confirmed that Aldrich also is on the membership rolls.

Mr Brink said he believed his child was dead until he received an unexpected phone call six months ago; they argued over the phone, he said.

“I thought he was dead,” Mr Brink said. “I mourned his loss. I had gone through a meltdown and thought I had lost my son … His mother told me he changed his name because I was in Intervention and I had been a porno actor.”

An affidavit in Texas days before Aldrich turned 16 years old indicated that they wished to change their name and “protect himself + his future from his birth father + his criminal history. Father has had no contact with minor for several years.”

Defense attorneys for Club Q mass shooting suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich left footnotes in legal filings this week to explain why Aldish is named “Mx. Aldrich” in the document.

The footnotes from the public defenders representing Aldrich claim that the suspect is “non-binary” and uses “they/them pronouns”.

Booking records list Aldrich as male. Text messages from the day of the shooting also show that Aldrich’s mother referred to her child as he and him.

At a news conference outside the courthouse on Wednesday, District Attorney Michael Allen said the suspect’s gender identity would not affect the case or influence whether he seeks hate crimes charges.

“I’m looking at evidence,” he said. “That’s what we look at when we make filing decisions.”

Kristen Prata Browde, a co-chair of the National Trans Bar Association, told The New York Times that a suspect’s gender identity does not have bearing on whether prosecutors can seek such a charge in this case.

“The motive for a crime isn’t dependent on whether you are or are not a member of a protected class,” she said. “It legally has no significance, as far as whether the actions of this individual fit within the law regarding hate crimes.”

The father of the Club Q mass shooting suspect said that his first reaction to being informed of the attack was to question why his child was inside a gay bar.

Aaron Brink, a former porn actor and MMA fighter, said that he received a call on Sunday night from his child’s public defender to say Aldrich was under arrest for the mass shooting.

“They started telling me about the incident, a shooting involving multiple people,” Mr Brink said in an interview.

“And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I said, ‘God, is he gay?’ I got scared, ‘S***, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, ‘Phew.’”

Congressmembers Dwight Evans, Ayanna Pressley and Eleanor Holmes Norton issued a letter with roughly 40 House lawmakers calling onthe US Department of Justice to investigate the “wave of threats of violence directed to several children’s hospitals” because of their treatment of transgender and non-binary patients.

Lawmakers called on the agency to counter threats and provide guidance on how to protect hospital staff and patients.

The letter from 36 lawmakers was issued after the mass shooting in Colorado Springs, with LGBT+ advocates pointing to increasing threats of violence and harassment aimed at LGBT+ people in the months leading up to the attack.

It also comes as several children’s hospitals have responded to hoax bomb threats and harassment after they were repeatedly targeted by far-right influencers on social media.

“From the brutal nightclub shooting in Colorado Springs this weekend to the latest bomb threat against Boston Children’s just last week, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ violence is on the rise and must be taken seriously,” Congresswoman Pressley said in a statement.

“That’s why we’re calling on the DOJ to immediately step up efforts to help keep health care providers, patients and community members safe,” she added.

Attorney for Aldrich noted in a footnote in a court filing this week at Aldrich uses they/them pronouns and identifies as nonbinary, which critics have accused of being a cynical legal maneuver to avoid hate crime charges, or as a last-minute defense; Aldrich’s family members and former friends have not used those gender pronouns.

Even though the defence has not categorically stated anything about using the suspect’s gender identity, legal experts said including pronouns in Tuesday’s court filing was a “very strategic move aimed at building sympathy to ward off the chances of attracting additional charges”.

The suspect’s gender identity is “not relevant,” according to Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor. “Obviously the defense will want to get it in, but it’s not a defense.”

During a press conference at Centura Penrose Cancer Center, Anthony, who survived several gunshot wounds during the mass shooting at Club Q, had a message for the suspect accused of killing five people and injuring 17 others.

“I would probably say, ‘Why don’t you meet somebody and get to know their true heart before passing judgment,’” Anthony told reporters this week. “Because he really did harm a lot of pure, true hearts that I don’t know if they’ll be the same.”

”I pretty much heard it first along with everybody else that was up by the door. And after that, I don’t know what happened,” Anthony said. “I don’t know anything because I just hid.”

He was shot in several different areas and hi by shrapnel in his rear end and arm.

A cell phone video from an airline passenger obtained by local news outlet Fox 31 allegedly shows mass shooting suspect Anderson Aldrich and Aldrich’s mother Laura Voepel during an airport confrontation on 31 July.

The pair allegedly used racist slurs towards a Hispanic family and a Black man during a flight.

The video follows media reports stringing together details about the suspect and family relationships in the weeks and months that preceded the attack.

After the Club Q mass shooting, critics have accused Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert of amplifying anti-gay and anti-trans rhetoric, invoking similar language that has been blamed for the attack.

She claims that the criticism comes from “the left” who is upset that she won her re-election, “so they’re trying to find something to go after me about.”

“I’ve been accused of just about every mass shooting there has been,” she told OAN’s Real America host Dan Ball. “We’re all sick of this.”