COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Family members of two people killed at Club Q said the El Paso County Sheriff's Office didn't do enough to stop the shooting suspect from getting guns after a 2021 arrest before his attack at the LGBTQ+ nightclub.
The mother of Raymond Vance and sister of Kelly Loving -- who were both shot and killed at the bar -- along with seven others who were injured, have filed notices of their intent to sue with the El Paso County attorney.
They argue the El Paso County Sheriff's failure to seek an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) or "red flag" order against the mass shooting suspect following an earlier 2021 arrest "negligently and unconscionably played a role in Anderson Aldrich possessing and using firearms inside Club Q."
In 2021, the suspect was arrested and jailed on suspicion of multiple counts of felony menacing and kidnapping, but prosecutors decided not to pursue the case and the records were sealed.
A press release issued by the sheriff’s office after the 2021 incident said the suspect's mother reported they were “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition.”
Before the suspect was arrested, they livestreamed video of themselves in a standoff with police inside their home.
"This is your boy,” they said on the video as he walked from room to room. “I've got the f------ s--- heads outside. Look at that. They got a bead on me. You see that right there? F------ s--- heads got their f------ rifles out. If they breach, I'm a f------ blow it to holy hell. So go ahead and come on in, boys. Let's f------ see it."
The notices of claim argue the sheriff's office should've sought an extreme risk protection order despite the dismissal of the case. Colorado law allows law enforcement to ask a judge to temporarily remove weapons from a person deemed dangerous to themselves or others.
However the El Paso County sheriff at the time, Bill Elder, made it clear repeatedly before the Club Q attack that he opposes the law.
“We’re not going to pursue these on our own,” he said in an interview before the attack with KRDO in Colorado Springs. “Meaning the sheriff’s office is not going to run over and get a court order. I’m not about to start that.”
Elder remained true to his word: a 9Wants to Know investigation found El Paso County law enforcement did not file a single "red flag" petition in 2020 or 2021.
"The families are saying had the sheriff enforced it then this Club Q shooting wouldn’t have happened," said 9NEWS legal analyst Whitney Traylor.
However he said that's a difficult legal argument to make. "There's just so many variables," he said.
"This was an egregious horrible situation, but from a legal perspective they’re going to have a hard time connecting the dots saying had the ERPO been in place, this shooting six months later wouldn’t have taken place," Traylor said.
Sources told 9NEWS that during the nightclub attack, the suspect was armed with a rifle and handgun that both lacked serial numbers and appeared to be so-called “ghost guns," which are virtually untraceable.
It is still not clear whether the suspect may have manufactured those weapons or whether they could have been purchased or assembled from parts available on the internet.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the pending litigation. In a statement from early December following the shooting, it said deputies removed the suspect's firearms following the 2021 arrest. Those guns remain in evidence.
A different type of protection order remained in place, the sheriff's office said, until a judge dismissed the case in July 2022. While that order was in effect, the sheriff's office said seeking a red flag order "would have been redundant and unnecessary."
Once the judge dismissed the 2021 case, it was sealed at the suspect's request. "This meant that our ability to even present a factual basis for a potential ERPO request at that point was no longer available because the case in which those facts were detailed had been sealed," the sheriff's office said.
The formal lawsuits against the sheriff's office have not been filed.
Eight of the victims are represented by Chicago-based law firm Romanucci and Blandin, LLC and are seeking $20 million in damages each. A ninth victim is represented by Colorado Springs firm Bufkin and Schneider, LLC and is seeking $424,000.
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