According to documents that were released on Thursday, the suspect accused of killing five people at an LGBTQ nightclub warned family members months before the incident that “you guys die today” if they persisted in notifying authorities about their intentions to make a bomb and hurt others.
The documents give information on the investigation into Anderson Aldrich after the suspect’s grandparents informed police in 2021, or almost 17 months before the assault, that the suspect had threatened them and was developing a bomb.
Aldrich is said to have told the grandparents in June 2021, “You guys die today and I’m taking you with me.” “You’re not phoning anyone. I’m loaded and ready.”
The documents shed light on the conflict between family members as some battled to protect Aldrich from legal action while others worried that the suspect was dangerous and would harm others.
After Aldrich was charged with five crimes in the bomb threat case, his great uncle and aunt, Robert Pullen and Jeanie Streltzoff wrote to a judge, “We are confident that (Aldrich) will kill or murder my brother and his wife if (Aldrich) is freed.”
'You guys die today': Club Q shooter threatened grandparents if they foiled plans for mass killing plot https://t.co/WkQupuJIM7 via @USATODAY
— Nick Penzenstadler (@npenzenstadler) December 9, 2022
Ultimately, the county’s top prosecutor claimed that Aldrich’s family’s resistance caused his staff to dismiss the accusations.
El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen described the hypothetical question of whether authorities could have impounded the suspect’s guns under Colorado’s “red flag” law as one that may not have prevented the bloodshed at Club Q.
The only way the tragedy could have been avoided, according to Allen, is if the witnesses had really shown up at the trial, given their testimony, and someone had been found guilty. “Once more, (Aldrich) wasn’t found guilty in that instance.”
According to the documents that were previously sealed, the incident took place on June 18, 2021, after Pamela Pullen, Aldrich’s grandmother, informed authorities that her grandson was developing a bomb in their basement.
The unsealed records state that when Pullen and her husband, Jonathan Pullen, informed Aldrich that they had sold their home in Colorado and intended to relocate to Florida, Aldrich threatened the grandparents and asserted that they couldn’t do so because it would “interfere with his bomb-making.”
Then Aldrich waved a gun at them and threatened to take them all away if they died today. I’m prepared and loaded. You’re not making any calls, according to the paperwork.
The statement states that Aldrich held the grandparent’s hostage in their home until they pledged not to leave and that Aldrich informed them of a plot to “perform a mass shooting and explosion.” Records indicate that when Aldrich returned to the basement, the grandparents escaped.
Aldrich fled and allegedly threatened to use explosives during a SWAT standoff at his mother’s house, according to authorities, and was eventually apprehended for menacing and kidnapping after the incident forced neighbors to flee and police crisis negotiators to intervene.
In Colorado, according to Allen, it is not illegal to own a ghost gun, which is defined as a weapon without a serial number — making it untraceable — but it is illegal to sell the weapons to others.
On Thursday, Allen said two guns were seized in the case after authorities executed a search warrant at the home in 2021.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office turned down Aldrich’s request to have the two weapons returned once the matter was closed, according to Allen.
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