COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A judge unsealed a dropped bomb threat case Thursday against the Colorado gay bar shooting suspect who threatened to become the “next mass killer” over a year before allegedly killing five people and wounding 17 others at the LGBTQ enclave Club Q.
Judge Robin Chittum said the public interest in the case outweighed the privacy rights of defendant Anderson Lee Aldrich.
“This interest is so significant I think I would even call it profound,” Chittum said. “To … see what occurred in a case is very foundational to our system of government to have that scrutiny. … And the only way for that scrutiny to occur is for this to be unsealed.”
The judge ruled despite objections from the suspect’s attorney and mother.
More than a year before police say Anderson Lee Aldrich killed five people and wounded 17 others at a gay night club in Colorado Springs, Aldrich was arrested on allegations of making a bomb threat that led to the evacuation of about 10 homes. The case was later dropped for reasons yet to be explained.
The judge’s order to release the records comes after news organizations, including The Associated Press, sought to unseal the documents from Aldrich’s 2021 arrest.
It was unknown when unsealed documents will be posted online.