Survivors and families of the victims who were killed in the mass shooting at US LGBTQ+ venue Club Q have filed lawsuits against the bar and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. The suits claim that the “deliberate inaction” of both helped facilitate the 2022 attack.

On November 19, 2022, Anderson Lee Aldrich walked into the LGBTQ+ venue in Colorado Springs and began shooting patrons, killing five people: Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump and Ashley Paugh, and wounding at least 25 others. Aldrich carried a loaded, privately manufactured assault weapon, and fired 60 rounds of ammunition before being subdued by a patron, Richard Fiero.

Prior to the shooting, Aldrich had reportedly visited the bar six times and was already on the police’s radar in 2021, when they allegedly threatened to kill their grandparents, reportedly saying they would become the “next mass killer”. In that incident, they were also found in possession of ammunition, bomb-making materials, firearms and body armour.

This event should have triggered Colorado’s ‘red flag’ law, which should prevent people who are a danger to themselves or others from buying or possessing firearms. Despite this, in the two years leading up to the attack, the shooter spent $9,000 on “weapons-related purchases”.

Survivors of the Club Q mass shooting and family members of those who were killed have filed separate lawsuits on Sunday, November 17. The first lawsuit against the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office states that the attack could have been prevented if the then-sheriff and commissioner had enforced the state’s red flag law.

El Paso County had passed a resolution against the red flag law, calling it a Second Amendment Preservation Resolution and claiming that the law infringed on people’s right to bear arms. However, the resolution wasn’t legally binding and thus the sheriff’s office was still obligated to follow the law.

Because of the resolution, authorities did not remove Aldrich’s weapons. “This deliberate inaction allowed the shooter continued access to firearms, directly enabling the attack on Club Q,” the lawsuit alleges.

The second lawsuit was filed against Club Q owners for failing to employ an adequate number of security staff. The plaintiffs claim that the owners decided to cut back on security in the years leading up to the attack, going from over five staff members to just one.

The suit accused the club owners of prioritising profit over their patrons’ safety. “Club Q advertised itself as a ‘safe place’ for LGBTQIA+ individuals. But that was a facade,” the lawsuit states.

Anderson Lee Aldrich is currently serving a total of 56 concurrent life sentences, and an additional 190 years in prison, after they pled guilty to 74 federal hate crime and firearms charges.