2022 Club Q Shooting

Overview

The 2022 Club Q Shooting refers to a U.S. mass shooting that took place at the LGBTQ nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs on November 19th, 2022, leading to five deaths and 19 injuries. The shooting occurred near midnight when the suspect, Anderson Aldrich (noted as the biological grandson of California Assemblyman Randy Voepel), brought a long rifle into the club and opened fire on the patrons, ending when he was stopped by club-goers who disarmed him, namely Army veteran Richard M. Fierro. Following the incident, calls for gun control such as earlier prevention measures started to grow after it was revealed that Aldrich had publicly livestreamed a stand-off with police a year prior and interacted with them in a way that many perceived he should have not been allowed to own guns.

Background

Late on the night of November 19th, 2022, Anderson Aldrich walked into the Club Q LGBTQ nightclub and began shooting at the patrons inside. The shooting was eventually stopped by those inside who fought back and got the gun away from Aldrich, leaving the death toll at five and limiting injuries to 17 wounded. Richard Ferro, an Army veteran who was in attendance at the Club with his family,^[5] was credited as the one who stopped the shooter and gave his account the following day to CNN, who posted the interview on its YouTube channel^[1] (shown below).

Developments

2021 Anderson Aldrich Bomb Threat

After learning of the shooter's name, media and civilians began looking into his past, which resulted in finding out about a stand-off with Colorado Springs Deputy Sheriffs as a result of a bomb threat on June 18th, 2021.^[6] Two days after the shooting on November 21st, 2022, Inside Edition^[2] posted a compilation of footage taken from the Ring doorbell camera the day of the bomb threat and read off details about the incident. Aldrich had allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb, which resulted in her calling the police about his threat, culminating in a tense situation with the police in which Aldrich made a Facebook Live stream that showed him in protective combat gear and threatening to blow himself and everyone else up (shown below).

Aldrich was ultimately booked into the El Paso County Jail on the charges: two counts of Felony Menacing and three counts of First-Degree Kidnapping.

Relation to California Assemblyman Randy Voepel

Also following details about Anderson Aldrich being investigated online, it was revealed on November 20th, 2022, that he was the biological grandson of California Assemblyman Randy Voepel, stirring up additional controversy on social media.^[7]

For example, on November 21st, Redditor KC_8580 posted an article about Aldrich's relation to Voepel to the /r/politics^[8] subreddit, receiving over 8,200 upvotes and 400 comments in roughly 24 hours. The development was also widely covered by the media after the shooting (example seen below).

Online Reactions

In the days following the shooting, reactions from social media users started to propagate online, with two notable points of contention debating the police's decision to designate or not designate the incident as a hate crime. Shortly after arresting the suspect on November 19th, 2022, it was cited as a hate crime against LGBTQ+ by many on social media due to the nature of the crime. However, Colorado Police then indicated that they did not have the evidence at the moment to determine if it was a bias-motivated hate crime or not, leading to intense backlash online (shown below via SkyNews).^[3]

'We're not at a point where we can label this investigation as a hate crime' says Colorado Springs police lieutenant Pamela Castro – adding they're still investigating how many people were in the nightclub at the time.https://t.co/Iv6M1R60Un

📺 Sky 501 and Youtube pic.twitter.com/exRjXKnKuh

— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 20, 2022

Another prevalent reaction online came as a result of finding out about the prior bomb threat and run-in with the police in 2021, which many said should have led to the removal of weapons from Aldrich or his ability to own a firearm. On social media, many users labeled this as a failure of the justice system.

One suggested reason theorized by some online for the bomb charges being dropped and Aldrich being allowed to keep his guns stemmed from his relation to a California State Assemblyman Randy Voepel, with the connection being explicitly stated by many users as the reason for lack of oversight over Aldrich and allowing the shooting to take place. For example, on November 20th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user chadloder noted this in his tweet and received over 25,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Additional viral debates surrounding the shooting occurred after a segment on NBC News in which a reporter suggested the controversial account Libs of TikTok and Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson played a role in the incident, which went viral online in the following days. On November 21st, Libs of TikTok then retweeted the viral video on its Twitter, receiving over 9,600 likes and 1,700 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Here’s the clip of Brandy saying what she claims she didn’t say 🤡 https://t.co/HubJKJqDfs

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 22, 2022

Search Interest

External References