'Non-binary' shooter behind Colorado LGBT club massacre will plead guilty to federal hate crime charges



The so-called "non-binary" shooter behind the November 2022 massacre at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs received five consecutive life sentences plus an additional 2,208 years of prison time in June. He is now set add some years to the total, pleading guilty to 74 counts of federal hate and gun crime charges.

The shooter hung out at Club Q on Nov. 19, 2022, then briefly left, returning dressed in body armor and toting a semi-automatic rifle. He proceeded to murder five people and injure 19 in what the Department of Justice characterized as a "willful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated attack." While he attempted to mow down dozens of additional victims, heroic patrons at the club were able to restrain him until police arrived on the scene.

The victims killed in the shooting were Daniel Aston, 28; Kelly Loving, 40; Ashley Paugh, 35; Derrick Rump, 38; and Raymond Green Vance, 22.

The mother of Ashtin Gamblin, a victim who was riddled with bullets but nevertheless managed to survive, asked the judge presiding over the shooter's state case to "lock this animal away to the depths of hell."

Judge Michael McHenry obliged the victim's mother, ensuring the shooter, now 23, would never again walk free, with thousands of years of prison time and no chance at parole.

"That is the longest sentence ever achieved in the Fourth Judicial District and the second, to my knowledge, longest sentence ever achieved in the state of Colorado, second only to the sentence achieved in the Aurora theater shooting case," said Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen, reported CNN.

While the shooter, son of a pornographer, identified as "non-binary" in court filings for the case and indicated his pronouns were "they/them," Allen addressed him as a male throughout the case, stressing that "there is zero evidence prior to the shooting that he was non-binary."

On Tuesday, the DOJ announced the shooter had been slapped with hate crime and firearms charges.

CNN, which elected to use the shooter's preferred pronouns, reported that the shooter struck a deal with prosecutors whereby he will plead guilty to all 74 counts — including 50 hate crime charges — and in exchange receive "multiple concurrent life sentences plus additional consecutive sentences totaling 190 years imprisonment," in the event a judge approves of the plea deal.

The Jan. 9 plea agreement was unsealed Tuesday after the shooter pleaded not guilty earlier in the day, reported the Associated Press.

While the death penalty was on the table, the plea agreement would let the shooter squeak by unscathed.

"It's angering and upsetting," said Ashtin Gamblin, reported Colorado Public Radio, which revised Gamblin's comments to respect the mass shooter's preferred pronouns. "Honestly I was hoping for a death penalty."

"I feel like [they] just got grounded, personally, it feels like with the 2,208 years, it's like [they] got grounded, go sit in your room for the rest of your life," said Gamblin. "The death penalty for me. … I just want [them] to sit with the thought of not knowing when [they're] going to die, or the fact [they] could die at any day, at any time, because that’s exactly what [they] did to us."

Michael Anderson, who was bartending at the club on the night of the shooting, suggested the federal charges would send "a message to people who want to commit violent acts against this community, and lets them know this is not something that is swept away or overlooked."

The shooter told the AP that at the time of the shooting, he was on a "very large plethora of drugs" and abusing steroids.

Just over a year before the shooting, the "non-binary" shooter was reportedly arrested for threatening his grandparents and vowing to become "the next mass killer," stockpiling weapons and bomb-making materials. He was cut loose and his case was dismissed in 2021after his grandparents stopped cooperating with prosecutors.

The shooter is presently siting in the Wyoming State Penitentiary, having been relocated on account of safety concerns.

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Biden uses Colorado Springs shooting to push gun control: 'We need to enact an assault weapons ban'



President Joe Biden didn't wait very long to utilize the horrific Colorado Springs shooting to push his gun control agenda. Biden – who admitted that there has yet to be a motive established in the Club Q shooting in Colorado – declared, "We need to enact an assault weapons ban."

There were five people killed and another 18 injured in the tragic shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado around midnight on Sunday. The suspect, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, reportedly burst into Club Q and began shooting at people. Two brave patrons at the LGBTQ nightclub subdued the gunman before more people could be harmed.

Colorado Springs police chief Adrian Vasquez said Aldrich used a long rifle in the shooting, and two firearms were found at the scene, according to CNN.

The New York Times reported, "Early reports indicate that the suspect entered the nightclub wearing body armor and began firing with an AR-15 style assault rifle, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting."

The investigation is in its infancy, and a motive has yet to be determined by authorities.

Biden issued a statement regarding the Colorado Springs shooting on Sunday.

"While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years," the statement read.

Biden claimed, "Gun violence continues to have a devastating and particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation and threats of violence are increasing."

He cited the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Biden added, "We continue to see it in the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women – especially transgender women of color."

He said, "We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people."

President Biden noted that the Colorado Springs shooter used a "long rifle."

Biden then pushed his gun control agenda that he has advocated for since 1994.

"We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms," Biden proclaimed. "Earlier this year, I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more."

Biden demanded, "We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets."

Biden has a history of using heart-wrenching shooting tragedies to peddle his gun control agenda.

On the anniversary of the harrowing Parkland shooting, Biden called for a similar ban on "weapons of war."

"Today, I am calling on Congress to enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets," Biden said in 2018. "We owe it to all those we've lost and to all those left behind to grieve to make a change. The time to act is now."

Following two mass shootings in 2021, Biden made another demand to pass an assault weapons ban.

"I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take commonsense steps that will save lives in the future," President Biden stated. "We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. It passed, it was the law for the longest time and it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again."

Last month, Biden pushed his assault weapon ban after the shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“For the lives we’ve lost and the lives we can save, I took historic action to stop gun violence in our nation, including signing the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years. But we must do more," Biden said. "We must pass an assault weapons ban,” Biden continued. “The American people support this commonsense action to get weapons of war off our streets. House Democrats have already passed it. The Senate should do the same. Send it to my desk and I’ll sign it."