New footage obtained by The Gazette shows events during a 2021 bomb threat that lead to the arrest of 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, whose name and age match that of the suspect arrested in Saturday's Club Q shooting. In this screen recording provided by the owner of the house where Aldrich’s mother lived at the time of the threat, a man appears to be live-streaming the bomb threat while wearing body armor.
Law enforcement officials investigating the Club Q shootings on Sunday said suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich's “interactions with law enforcement” are part of the broader investigation.
New footage obtained by The Gazette shows the events leading to the arrest of 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, whose name and age match that of the suspect arrested in Saturday's Club Q shooting, in connection a June 2021 bomb threat reported by his mother in a Lorson Ranch neighborhood. Law enforcement officials investigating the Club Q shootings said Aldrich's “interactions with law enforcement” are part of the broader investigation. Aldrich faced arrest-only charges of felony kidnapping and menacing in the incident, though no formal charges were pursued and his case was sealed, the District Attorney's Office said.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office arrested a man with the same name and matching age in June 2021 in connection to a bomb threat that forced residents in a Lorson Ranch neighborhood in southeast Colorado Springs to evacuate from their homes for about three hours, according to an earlier report by the Sheriff's Office.
No formal charges were pursued in the case, which has since been sealed, the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office told The Gazette, after Aldrich called an editor in August and asked that the story on The Gazette's website be removed since the case was dropped.
"There is absolutely nothing there, the case was dropped, and I'm asking you either remove or update the story," Aldrich said in a voice message to The Gazette.
"The entire case was dismissed," he said.
Officials on Sunday would not confirm that 22-year-old Aldrich was the same man arrested in 2021; however, Howard Black, spokesman for the District Attorney's Office, said last year's incident will be part of the investigation of Saturday's mass shooting at the popular LGBTQ+ nightclub.
The man’s mother reported the bomb threat to law enforcement, saying her son had made threats with a homemade bomb, several weapons and ammunition and she did not know where he was, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Deborah Mynatt said in a press release at the time.
Sheriff's deputies evacuated an area encompassing a quarter-mile radius around the 6300 block of Pilgrimage Road, which was roughly a mile from the address they responded to, after they made contact with the man and he refused to comply with deputies' orders.
Leslie Bowman, the owner of the house where the threat occurred, told The Gazette that Aldrich’s mother, Laura Voepel, was her tenant and roommate for “a little over a year” before the 2021 incident. Bowman was out of the house when the threat was reported and said Voepel messaged her to stay away because “some people were looking for Andy,” Bowman said.
“She’s sending me those messages and I read between the lines, thinking the police are looking for him,” Bowman said. Eventually, negotiators were able to get Aldrich to come out of the house, and deputies took him into custody.
Eventually, negotiators were able to get the man to come out of the house, and deputies took him into custody.
9NEWS LIVESTREAM: Colorado Springs officials, including Mayor John Suthers, CSPD Chief Adrian Vasquez, and 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael J. Allen provide an update on deadly mass shooting at Club Q during an 8 a.m. press conference on Nov. 20 at the Police Operations Center.
The Sheriff's Office said the man was accused of two counts of felony menacing and three counts of first-degree kidnapping.
Bowman said she had Voepel move out within two days of the incident, and that she never saw or heard from the mother again. But last month, on Oct. 18, police arrived at her address to perform a “wellness check” on Voepel, Bowman said, but she did not know why. She said she was not contacted after the bomb threat by law enforcement and did not know of Voepel’s or Aldrich’s recent whereabouts.
Bowman believed Aldrich lived with his maternal grandparents, Pamela and Jonathon Pullen, in a nearby residence in her neighborhood at the time of the threat incident, and said that Aldrich would come to her house in the evenings to watch movies with Voepel.
“He came across to me as not a very social person,” Bowman said. “Usually, my conversations with him were, ‘Hi Andy, bye Andy.’”
Bowman said she did remember one instance when she returned home from a long road trip to a complaint from Voepel regarding maintenance issues in the bathroom. When she told the mother and son that she would address the fix in the morning, Aldrich “slammed the door” in her face.
“I just chalked that up to typical teenage boy aggression, and I just let it go,” she said. “That was the only time he was aggressive.”
The Denver Gazette has learned from a relative, who wished to remain anonymous, that the suspect is the grandson of Randy Voepel, a representative for California's 71st Assembly District, based in San Diego and Riverside counties. Voepel serves as the vice chair of the Military and Veterans Affairs, Aging and Long-Term Care, and Public Employment and Retirement committees. He lost this year when he ran for election in a newly drawn legislative district.
Anderson's mother alluded to her father's public service several times on her Facebook page, with one post saying, "Keep up the good work Dad. You work hard to improve our lives and a lot of us take notice." Randy Voepel was mayor of Santee, Calif., when the 2001 shooting at Santana High School occurred.
The Gazette asked Laura Voepel, Randy Voepel and Aldrich's grandparents, Jon and Pamela Pullen, of Ormond Beach, Fla., for a comment and received no response. According to Pamela Pullen’s Facebook page, she and her husband moved from Colorado to Florida in November 2021.
The earlier arrest could raise questions about why Colorado's "red-flag" law didn't come into play in Aldrich's case.
The law, now in effect for nearly 19 months, is supposed to give law enforcement agencies and concerned family members a powerful tool to help prevent mass shootings.
The statute allows law enforcement officers or private citizens to petition a county court to confiscate firearms temporarily from people who pose an imminent threat to themselves or others.
El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder, an opponent of the law, at one point threatened to sue the state if the red flag statute became law. No lawsuit was filed, however, and Elder later made clear that El Paso County deputies will carry out the law.
The Colorado Springs Police Department has filed two of the state's 348 red-flag petitions since the law went into effect.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Colorado Springs police initially reported early Sunday that five people had died and 18 were wounded, then changed it to five dead and another 25 wounded. On Monday, a joint operation between police and the city of Colorado Springs corrected the totals to five fatalities, and 17 people sustained gunshot wounds, another person injured in another manner and one victim with no visible injuries but considered a victim, according to city spokesman Max D'Onofrio. The situation was very chaotic on Sunday, D'Onofrio said, which led to the change in numbers. The suspect also was wounded and remains in police custody in a local hospital. He brings the total to 25 people impacted.
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