COLORADO SPRINGS (CN) — Families of five people slain in a 2022 mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Monday joined several survivors in federal lawsuits against the night club claiming lax security and the local sheriff’s department for failing to use the state’s red-flag law to stop the shooter from gathering weapons prior to the attack.
People gathered at the LGBTQ nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs to celebrate Transgender Day of Remembrance in November 2022. Anderson Lee Aldrich attacked the attendees, killing five people and injuring 25 others. After pleading guilty, Aldrich was sentenced to five concurrent life sentences in June 2023.
Adrian Vance lost her son, Raymond Green, in the attack. Vance joined 10 other families and survivors in suing then-El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder, along with the county commissioners and Club Q, claiming the entities could have done more to prevent the shooting.
Barrett Hudson, who was hit seven times in the attack filed a separate, similar lawsuit in federal court. Three bullets will remain in Hudson’s body for the rest of his life.
Vance drew parallels between the Colorado Springs tragedy and the 2016 attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people were killed, saying both clubs and law enforcement ignored red flags leading up to the attacks.
“Law enforcement missed critical opportunities to prevent this tragedy,” Vance and the other plaintiffs say in the 70-page complaint. “Colorado’s red-flag law was specifically designed to temporarily remove firearms from individuals deemed dangerous to themselves or others.”
When Colorado lawmakers signed the Extreme Risk Protection Order law in 2019 enabling law enforcement to remove firearms from individuals deemed likely to carry out “future dangerous acts,” then-Sheriff Elder vowed to restrict his office’s use of the legal tool citing Second Amendment concerns. The county commission passed a supporting resolution pledging to resist implementation of the new law.
Elder retired in January 2023.
More than a year before the Club Q attack, in June 2021, local law enforcement arrested and charged Aldrich with felony menacing and kidnapping in an incident at a relative’s apartment where Aldrich promised to be the next mass killer and bragged about building an arsenal.
A local judge dismissed a protection order along with the case in July 2022, which was sealed until after the November attack. Although the sheriff’s office declined to return confiscated firearms, Aldrich was then able to obtain new firearms without restriction, Vance claims in the lawsuit.
“The sheriff’s office was well aware of the threat that Aldrich caused to the community after the June 2021 incident (the first incident), and that he continued to have access to weapons (especially firearms) after his criminal case was dismissed on July 5th, 2022. Yet, the Sherriff’s Office did nothing to protect the community,” Hudson said in his 71-page complaint.
The plaintiffs also claim Club Q should have offered better protection. Although Club Q hired five or more armed security guards after the Pulse attack, the establishment rolled back security over the years, leaving just one guard in 2023 who doubled as a barback and food runner.
Ultimately two patrons, Thomas James and Army veteran Richard Fierro, tackled the shooter, preventing further deaths.
Club owner Matthew Haynes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Vance and the families are represented by attorney Patrick Huber of the Chicago firm Romanucci & Blandin.
Hudson is represented by Colorado Springs attorney Bradley Bufkin.
