Club Q victims, families sue El Paso County officials for not using red flag law to protect them
Two lawsuits were filed this week near the two-year anniversary of the mass shooting at the LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs
8:31 AM MST on Nov 19, 2024
Victims and family members of the 2022 mass shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub that was a refuge for the LGBTQ community are suing the El Paso County commissioners and sheriff for failing to prevent the tragedy by using the state’s red flag law.
County authorities had “ample grounds” to take away the shooter’s guns under Colorado’s 2019 law, formally known as an extreme risk protection order, which allows the removal of firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others, the lawsuit says.
“Law enforcement missed critical opportunities to prevent this tragedy,” says the federal lawsuit filed Sunday, almost two years to the day of the Nov. 19, 2022, attack. “The shooter had a history of violent threats and behavior that clearly warranted intervention.”
The lawsuit was filed by John Arcediano, Jancarlos Del Valle, Ashtin Gamblin, Jerecho Loveall, Anthony Malburg, Charlene Slaugh, James Slaugh and Brianna Winningham, and on behalf of victims Raymond Green, Kelly Loving and Derrick Rump. A separate lawsuit was filed by Barrett Hudson, who was shot seven times.
Five people were killed and 19 were injured in the shooting. Anderson Lee Aldrich, who was 22 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty in June to 50 federal hate crime charges and was sentenced to life in prison.
About five months before the shooting, Aldrich was arrested by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for threatening his grandparents. Aldrich was accused of vowing to become “the next mass killer,” while stockpiling weapons, body armor and bomb-making materials. Aldrich’s mother and grandparents did not cooperate with authorities and the charges were eventually dismissed.
An El Paso County judge dismissed the case after prosecutors were unable to serve subpoenas on witnesses, namely the suspect’s mother and grandparents, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said in December 2022. Allen said authorities seized two guns from Aldrich as part of the 2021 arrest: a pistol without a serial number, called a “ghost gun,” and an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle. The district attorney said both weapons were never returned to Anderson, despite the suspect’s efforts to get them back from an evidence hold.
After the Club Q shooting, investigators discovered Aldrich had created two websites to post hateful content about the LGBTQ community. They also found that Aldrich had shared recordings of 911 calls from the 2016 killing of 49 people at the gay-friendly Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
In conservative El Paso County, county officials denounced the red flag law, and when the shooting at Club Q occurred, the sheriff’s office had not filed any petitions under the law to remove a person’s firearms.
In March 2019, before the state law was signed, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution declaring El Paso County a “Second Amendment preservation county.”
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, under former Sheriff Bill Elder, adopted a policy opposing the red flag law, and said no sheriff’s employee would make a petition under the law “unless exigent circumstances exist” and there is probable cause that “a crime is being or has been committed.”
At a news conference in Denver on Tuesday, victims said they were suffering two years later with physical pain and mental anguish.
Charlene Slaugh, who was shot multiple times, has gone through multiple surgeries and has “come a long way” physically, she said. But “the pain and memories are as vivid as if they were yesterday,” she said. “There are still many moments where the weight of it all becomes completely overwhelming. There is a profound loneliness that comes with carrying trauma like this.
“I remember what it felt like to wonder if I would survive.”
James Slaugh said he is struggling to live with hypervigilance — always looking for the closest exit, feeling anxious in every crowded space. He is regularly jolted awake by nightmares about the shooting.
“Surviving doesn’t mean it’s over,” he said.
The plaintiffs are using the Chicago-based law firm of Romanucci & Blandin, which has represented victims of several mass shootings across the country. The lawsuit does not ask for a specific monetary amount.
The “facade” of a safe space
Hudson, who filed the separate lawsuit, had recently moved to Colorado and was at Club Q for about 30 minutes when the shots began, said his Colorado Springs attorney, Brad Bufkin. He was shot seven times, then called his dad to tell him he loved him as he lay on the floor for 30 minutes waiting for help. At the hospital, his clothes were cut from his body and he was placed on a metal gurney, “not knowing if he was going to live or die,” Bufkin said. “He was scared and covered in his own blood.”
Hudson still has three bullets in his body because doctors determined it was too dangerous to remove them. He lives in constant pain and can no longer work the construction job he had with his dad, his attorney said.
“Every ache and pain is a reminder of what he saw and heard that night,” Bufkin said.
The lawsuit filed by the victims and families also claims the owners of Club Q were negligent for failing to provide enough security at the club.
At the time of the shooting at Pulse in Orlando, Club Q in Colorado Springs had a “robust security team,” with at least five security guards, including one with a loaded firearm, according to the lawsuit. But the focus on security “diminished significantly” over the following years, and by 2022, Club Q had just one security guard, who was not armed. The sole security employee also served as a bar back and food runner, the lawsuit says.
“He did his best to protect patrons, but was left with an impossible task,” the lawsuit says. “Club Q advertised itself as a “safe space” for LGBTBQIA+ individuals. But that was a facade.”
Those killed in the shooting were Green, Loving, Rump, Daniel Aston and Ashley Paugh.
Green’s mother, Adriana Vance, said she constantly questions what could have been done differently to prevent her son’s death. His dog has become her best friend.
“My grief comes in waves,” she said. “I have learned to surf them.”