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Anderson Lee Aldrich, the individual charged with taking the lives of five people in the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, is facing a total of 305 charges and is likely to spend the rest of their life in prison without parole.

22-year-old Aldrich was formally charged for the shooting in court by Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen.

Allen announced that Aldrich would have to answer to a total of 305 charges, including murder, assault and hate crimes.

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“When you file 305 counts in a case, that tells the public… that we’re taking this case as serious as we possibly can, meaning that we are going to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law,” Allen explained in a press conference.

Allen also confirmed that there is enough evidence to convict Aldrich of committing hate crimes by “bias-motivated offences.”

“We’re not going to tolerate actions against community members based on their sexual identity. Members of that community have been harassed, intimidated and abused for too long. That’s not going to occur in the fourth judicial district,” Allen added.

If found guilty of first-degree murder, Aldrich is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. There is also a possibility that the federal government could further charge the shooter.

Aldrich’s public defence attorneys have since revealed that the alleged killer identifies as nonbinary, uses they/them pronouns, and wishes to be addressed as Mx. Aldrich by the court.

Aldrich is scheduled to appear in court next in February 2023.

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