Club Q killer Anderson Aldrich, beaten by patrons with his own gun, gets life plus 2,400 years

A 22-year-old Colorado Springs gunman was sentenced to life in prison plus 2,400 years for a deadly nightclub hate crime, court records show.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, entered guilty pleas in connection with the mass shooting, according to court documents.

The defendant pleaded guilty to charges including first-degree murder, according to the plea agreement.

On November 19-20, 2022, the gunman attacked Club Q, one of the only LGBTQ+ nightclubs in Colorado Springs, records state.

Five people were killed and 25 others were injured inside the club, police said.

Nineteen of the surviving victims were shot, with the violence taking place in under a minute, according to authorities.

The venue served as one of the few safe spaces in the city for its community, records show.

Aldrich received an initial sentence of life in prison without parole at the state level, court records show.

A separate federal sentence was then handed down on top of the state penalty, according to prosecutors.

The federal court imposed life without parole plus more than 2,400 additional years, along with two hate crime convictions, records show.

The rampage was halted before responding officers arrived at the scene, according to accounts of the shooting.

Navy petty officer Thomas James grabbed the barrel of Aldrich’s rifle and was shot twice for it, records show.

That intervention gave Army veteran Richard Fierro enough time to tackle the gunman to the ground, officials said.

Fierro grabbed the handgun after its magazine fell loose, witnesses said. He beat the shooter with his own weapon while a transgender woman named Drea Norman helped hold him down.

Fierro did not yet know that one of the five people who never made it out was Raymond Green Vance, 22, records show. Vance was about to be his own daughter’s boyfriend.

“I don’t know exactly what I did,” he said afterward. “I just went into combat mode.”

First responders assumed the defendant had been shot after seeing the severity of his injuries, police said. He had not been, with every mark inflicted by three strangers using their bare hands and his own gun.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis praised the bystanders, calling them “brave individuals who blocked the shooter, likely saving lives.”

None of the three people who subdued the gunman were law enforcement officers, officials said.

None of them had known each other prior to that night, according to reports.

Aldrich remains sentenced to state and federal life without parole plus 2,400 years following the deadly attack, court records show.