Shortly before midnight Saturday, a gunman entered the LGBTQ-friendly Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and immediately began firing into the crowd, killing five and injuring 25, according to police.
Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said Sunday the suspect was 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich.
A long rifle was used in the shooting, according to the police chief. Two firearms were recovered at the scene.
Police said Sunday they were investigating the suspect’s history, but declined to give details.
Aldridge was arrested in June 2021 after a bomb threat sparked a standoff at his mother’s home, according to a press release from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office at the time and his mother’s former landlord. Colorado Springs is located in El Paso County.
Using his name and date of birth, two law enforcement sources confirmed that the suspect in Saturday’s shooting and the bomb threat were the same individual.
Video obtained by CNN showed Aldridge surrendered to law enforcement last year after allegedly making a bomb threat. Footage from the homeowner’s Ring Door Camera showed Aldridge stepping out of the house barefoot with his hands up and toward the sheriff’s deputies.
The sheriff’s deputies responded to the man’s mother’s report that he “threatened to inflict harm on her with homemade bombs, multiple weapons and ammunition,” the release said. Deputies called the suspect, who “refusal to comply with an order to turn himself in,” the news release said, causing them to evacuate a nearby home.
Hours after the initial call, the sheriff’s crisis negotiation team managed to get Aldridge out of the house, and he was arrested after walking out the front door. Authorities did not find any explosives at the home.
Leslie Bowman, who owns the home where Aldridge’s mother lives, provided the videos to CNN. Aldridge’s mother rented a room in the house for a little more than a year, and Aldridge would visit his mother there, Bowman said.
CNN tried unsuccessfully to reach Aldridge’s mother for comment.
It was unclear how the bomb threat was resolved, but the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the district attorney’s office said no formal charges were filed in the case. The district attorney’s office did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Aldridge also called the Gazette to try to remove an earlier report on the 2021 event from the website, the newspaper reported.