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  1. #1
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    Default Colorado Springs Gay Bar Shooter - Another FBI & Local LEO Failure

    FBI got earlier tip about Colorado Springs gay bar shooter
    By Colleen Slevin and Jim Mustian - Associated Press - Wednesday, December 7, 2022
    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...t-colorado-sp/

    DENVER (AP) * Authorities said the person who would later kill five at a Colorado gay nightclub was on the FBI's radar a day before being arrested for threatening to kill family members, but agents closed out the case just weeks later.

    The FBI's disclosure about the tip, provided in a statement to The Associated Press, creates a new timeline for when law enforcement was first alerted to Anderson Lee Aldrich as a potential danger. The FBI did not say who gave the tip on June 17, 2021, or anything about the information that was provided.

    The next day, law enforcement was alerted when Aldrich's grandparents ran from their Colorado Springs home and called 911, saying Aldrich was building a bomb in the basement and had threatened to kill them. Details of the case remain sealed, but an arrest affidavit verified by the AP detailed how Aldrich was upset the grandparents were moving to Florida because it would get in the way of Aldrich's plans to conduct a mass shooting and bombing.

    The grandparents were concerned about Aldrich even before the 911 call, according to the document, with the grandmother telling authorities she and her husband had been "living in fear" because of Aldrich's "recent homicidal threats toward them and others."

    In a story Sunday, The Denver Gazette cited an unidentified family member saying the grandfather called the FBI the day before the bomb threat. The shooting is the latest crime to raise questions about whether the FBI moves too soon to close cases involving people who have shown violent tendencies.

    As part of the FBI's probe, the agency said it coordinated with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, which had responded to the June 18, 2021, call from Aldrich's grandparents and arrested Aldrich, now 22, on felony menacing and kidnapping charges. But about a month after getting the tip, the FBI closed its assessment of Aldrich, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.

    "With state charges pending, the FBI closed its assessment on July 15, 2021," the FBI said.

    Those charges were later dropped for unknown reasons. Under Colorado law, cases that are dismissed by either prosecutors or a judge are automatically sealed to prevent people from having their lives ruined if they do not end up being prosecuted. Authorities have cited the law in refusing to answer questions about the case but a coalition of media organizations, including the AP, has asked the court to unseal the records. A hearing is planned for Thursday.

    A spokesperson for the sheriff's office, Sgt. Jason Garrett, declined to comment on the FBI's statement or on whether his agency had any tips about Aldrich before their 2021 arrest, citing the sealing law.

    The shooting at Club Q occurred more than a year later, just before midnight on Nov. 19, when Aldrich opened fire as soon as they entered the club, firing indiscriminately with an AR-15-style rifle while wearing a ballistic vest, according to an arrest affidavit that was written the day after the shooting but not unsealed until Wednesday evening. Aldrich killed five people and wounded 17 others before an Army veteran wrestled the attacker to the ground.

    The affidavit does not provide any new information about what motivated Aldrich, but says they expressed remorse to medical staff shortly after the shooting and said they had been awake for four days, according to police officers guarding their room at the hospital. It doesn't including anything more about what Aldrich may have told investigators.

    The document also includes an image from the club's surveillance video showing a blast coming out of the rifle barrel as Aldrich entered the club.

    Aldrich's mother told police that they were supposed to go to a movie at 10 p.m. that night, about two hours before the attack, but said Aldrich had left before then, saying they had to do quick errand.

    The FBI is now helping to investigate the shooting. Xavier Kraus, a former neighbor of Aldrich and their mother, told the AP Wednesday that agents have interviewed him in recent days about a free speech website Aldrich created that has featured a series of violent posts, glorifying violence and racism.

    "It was meant for people to go and pretty much say whatever they want with the exception of the two rules: No spamming and no child pornography," Kraus said. "If I would have known what it was going to turn into, that would have struck a different chord with me."

    Kraus said that after the bomb threat charges were dropped, Aldrich began boasting about recovering the guns, and once showed Kraus two assault-style rifles, body armor and incendiary rounds.

    Kraus said Aldrich "was talking about bullets that could pierce through police-grade armor." He said it seemed like Aldrich hoped someone would break into their home.

    An FBI assessment is the lowest level, least intrusive, and most elementary stage of an FBI inquiry. Such assessments are routinely opened after agents receive a tip, and investigators routinely face the challenge of sifting through which of the tens of thousands of tips received every year could yield a viable threat.

    There have been several high-profile examples of the FBI having received information about a gunman before a mass shooting. A month before Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at a Florida high school, the bureau received a warning that he had been talking about committing a mass shooting. A man who massacred 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in 2016 and another who set off bombs in the streets of New York City the same year had each been looked at by federal agents but officials later determined they did not warrant continued law enforcement scrutiny.

    FBI guidelines meant to balance national security with civil liberties protections impose restrictions on the steps agents may take during the assessment phase. Agents, for instance, may analyze information from government databases and open-source internet searches, and can conduct interviews during an assessment. But they cannot turn to more intrusive techniques, such as requesting a wiretap or internet communications, without higher levels of approval and a more solid basis to suspect a crime.

    More than 10,000 assessments are opened each year. Many are closed within days or weeks when the FBI concludes there's no criminal or national security threat, or basis for continued scrutiny. The system is meant to ensure that a person who has not broken the law does not remain under perpetual scrutiny on a mere hunch * and that the FBI can reserve its resources for true threats.
    (Highlights & Bolds are mine)

    ETA: I should have included the judiciary in the title failures. The prosecutors & judges often fail not only the community but the local LEOs who have done their job.

    The news orgs don't even realize THEY are promoting the problem by supporting the delusional references of Aldrich to himself as THEY. If you accept & promote these delusional perceptions of reality, how can you expect rational choices from that person. (But, wait, it seems they don't expect such rational choices.)

    This is another example where the results of BAD POLICIES are leading to the idea that MORE BAD POLICY is needed. See the BLUE highlight. The failure of the FBI to see the BIG, BRIGHT RED FLAG in front of their faces is excused by the fact that the FBI is restricted from examining every orifice of anyone's life because someone else complains of some dislike. So the push for a solution is to EXAMINE TO THE EXTREME EVERYONE THEY CHOOSE. It seems like a deliberate ploy (since they are unwilling to see the BIG, BRIGHT RED FLAG in front of their faces) in order to promote the solution that everyone (as in, all guilty until proven innocent) should be subject to their intrusive examinations.

    The stupidity is thinking that since they can't do a proper evaluation of those who TRULY ARE A THREAT to society (or those closely around them), that violation of everyone's rights should be applied universally, with even more incompetent scrutiny, which is likely to still lead to the same results - Being Blind To Reality.

    If you haven't been paying attention, this is how the liberal leftists create CHAOS and then USE THAT CHAOS to justify Tyranny and Totalitarianism.


    ...
    Last edited by ImminentDanger; December 8th, 2022 at 04:50 PM.

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    Default Re: Colorado Springs Gay Bar Shooter - Another FBI & Local LEO Failure

    Judge Unseals Docs in Gay Bar Shooting Suspect's Past Case
    Newmax - Thursday, 08 December 2022
    (From an original AP story)
    https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/co...08/id/1099692/

    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 seventeen others at the LGBTQ enclave Club Q.

    Judge Robin Chittum said the "profound" public interest in the case outweighed the privacy rights of defendant Anderson Lee Aldrich. The judge added that scrutiny of judicial cases is "foundational to our system of government."

    "The only way for that scrutiny to occur is for this to be unsealed," she said.

    Aldrich was arrested in June 2021 on allegations of making a bomb threat that led to the evacuation of about 10 homes. Aldrich, who uses they/them pronouns and is nonbinary according to their attorneys, had threatened to harm their own family and boasted of having bomb making materials, ammunition and multiple weapons, according to law enforcement documents. They were booked into jail on suspicion of felony menacing and kidnapping.

    The case was later dropped and officials to date have refused to speak about what happened, citing a state law that calls for dismissed cases to be sealed.

    Aldrich's alleged statements that he intended to become "the next mass killer " foretold last month's mass shooting and have raised questions over why authorities did not seek to seize Aldrich's guns under Colorado's 'red flag' law.

    Aldrich also was the subject of a tip received by the FBI a day before the bomb threat. Agents closed out the case just weeks later.

    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.

    Under Colorado law, records are automatically sealed when a case is dropped and defendants are not prosecuted as happened in Aldrich*s 2021 case. Once sealed, officials cannot acknowledge that the records exist and the process to unseal the documents initially happens behind closed doors with no docket to follow and an unnamed judge.

    "This is one of the strangest hearings I think I've ever had," said Chittum. "I'm having a hearing about a case that none of us is to recognize."

    It was unknown when unsealed documents will be posted online. Chittum ruled despite objections from the suspect's attorney and mother.

    Public defender Joseph Archambault argued that while the public has an interest in the case, Aldrich's right to a fair trial was paramount.

    "This will make sure there is no presumption of innocence," said Archambault.

    Aldrich sat at the defense table looking straight ahead or down at times and did not appear to show any reaction when their mother's lawyer asked that the case not be unsealed.

    An attorney for Aldrich's mother argued that unsealing the case would increase the likelihood that Laura Voepel would suffer harm, harassment, intimidation or retaliation.

    Aldrich's attorneys told the judge the defense filed a contempt of court motion against the sheriff's office over an AP story that detailed what was in some of the sealed documents. The documents were obtained by Colorado Springs TV station KKTV and verified as authentic to the AP by a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the sealed case and kept anonymous. Judge Chittum did not rule on the motion but said she would not let it hold up her decision about unsealing the case.

    The Associated Press verified a copy of the sealed documents with a law enforcement official that described Aldrich telling frightened grandparents of firearms and bomb-making material in their basement, vowing not to allow them to interfere in plans to kill on a mass scale.

    Aldrich then pointed a Glock handgun at the grandparents as they pleaded for their lives and said, "You guys die today - I'm loaded and ready."

    The documents say the grandparents ran out of the house while Aldrich stepped away and called 911. Aldrich then holed up in a home nearby where the mother was living while a SWAT team and bomb squad stood outside with rifles raised and bomb sniffing dogs. At one point, Aldrich yelled that he would set off a bomb if law enforcement tried to enter before finally surrendering.

    The law enforcement official who confirmed the documents to the AP was not authorized to talk about them and so was given anonymity.
    Every gun owner will be affected by the lack of prosecution of actual evil actors. All gun owners will be painted with the broad brush of Big Governement, Big Media and Big Business that continues to promote the idea that 'guns are inherently evil' and that 'gun owners are obviously a danger to society'. They demand that both must be eliminated from society in order to have Peace & Safety.

    ...
    Last edited by ImminentDanger; December 8th, 2022 at 04:51 PM.

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    Default Re: Colorado Springs Gay Bar Shooter - Another FBI & Local LEO Failure

    Sounds like somebody doesn’t like a certain demographic.

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    Default Re: Colorado Springs Gay Bar Shooter - Another FBI & Local LEO Failure

    It was unknown when unsealed documents will be posted online. Chittum ruled despite objections from the suspect's attorney and mother.


    I am thinking the mom dropped the charges against her son and that is why she doesn*t want the documents released.

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    Default Re: Colorado Springs Gay Bar Shooter - Another FBI & Local LEO Failure

    Judge warned in 2021 of gay bar attacker's shootout plans
    By JESSE BEDAYN and MATTHEW BROWN - December 16, 2022
    https://apnews.com/article/colorado-...469f667a09a3d5

    COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A judge dismissed the 2021 kidnapping case against the Colorado gay nightclub shooter even though she had previously raised concerns about the defendant stockpiling weapons and explosives and planning a shootout, court transcripts obtained Friday by The Associated Press reveal.

    Relatives, including the grandparents who claimed to have been kidnapped, had also told Judge Robin Chittum in August last year about Anderson Aldrich's struggles with mental illness during a hearing at which the judge said Aldrich needed treatment or "it's going to be so bad," according to the documents.

    Yet no mention was made during a hearing this July of the suspect's violent behavior or the status of any mental health treatment.

    And Chittum, who had received a letter late last year from relatives of Aldrich's grandparents warning the suspect was certain to commit murder if freed, granted a defense attorney's motion to dismiss the case as a trial deadline loomed and the grandparents had stopped cooperating.

    Five people were killed and 17 wounded in the Nov. 19 attack. Aldrich was charged last week with 305 criminal counts, including hate crimes and murder. Aldrich's public defender has declined to talk about the case, and investigators have not released a motive.

    Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said transcripts of court hearings in the case confirmed his view that "more could have been done to prevent the violence."

    Dershowitz acknowledged that he didn't know every detail in front of Chittum during the hearings but said that while judges are typically supposed to be umpires, "judges are usually more aggressive in cases like this, when the handwriting is on the wall."

    In many cases, Dershowitz said, prosecutors can overreach to get a conviction, but "here, you have the legal system failing."

    Chittum's comments in Aldrich's kidnapping case had previously been under a court seal that was lifted last week at the request of prosecutors and news organizations including the AP. Chittum's assistant, Chad Dees, said Friday that the judge declined to comment.

    "You clearly have been planning for something else," Chittum told Aldrich during the August 2021 hearing, after the defendant testified about an affinity for shooting firearms and a history of mental health problems.

    "It didn't have to do with your grandma and grandpa. It was saving all these firearms and trying to make this bomb, and making statements about other people being involved in some sort of shootout and a huge thing. And then that's kind of what it turned into," the judge said.

    Aldrich — whose defense lawyers say is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns — spoke to Chittum in court that day about repeated abuse as a young child by their father and longtime struggles with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder, the transcript shows.

    (The vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent, studies show, and experts say most people who are violent do not have mental illnesses. Additionally, nonbinary people and advocates warn against making assumptions about people with nontraditional gender identities.)

    Aldrich, who was largely raised by their grandparents, wanted to join the military as a teenager but decided it wasn't going to happen, the transcripts show. The suspect described refusing to take medications and then "getting on track" after moving to Colorado, obtaining a medical marijuana license and starting college, according to the transcripts.

    "I also went to the (shooting range) as often as I could since the age of 16," Aldrich testified, the transcripts show. "My mom and I would go ... sometimes multiple times a week and have fun shooting. This is a major pastime for me. Going to school, working and then relaxing at the shooting range."

    Aldrich said they went to Dragonman's shooting range east of Colorado Springs, where the dirt driveway was lined by mannequins that looked bloodied Friday. Nearby were rusted vehicles, some peppered in bullet holes. Two people who appeared to work at the range said they did not know Aldrich and declined further comment.

    Shooting at the range "was highly therapeutic for me, and was a great way to spend spare time," Aldrich told Chittum.

    When Aldrich's grandparents made plans to move to Florida, the suspect became despondent. Leading up to the 2021 confrontation with authorities, Aldrich started drinking liquor regularly and smoking heroin, dropped out of school and quit working, the transcript shows.

    The charges in that case against Aldrich — who had stockpiled explosives and allegedly spoke of plans to become the "next mass killer" before engaging in an armed standoff with SWAT teams — were thrown out during a four-minute hearing this past July at which the prosecution didn't even argue to keep the case active.

    The prosecution was the responsibility solely of the district attorney, said Ian Farrell, associate professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, noting that judges like Chittum have no power to force charges.

    "Since a deadline for proceeding with (Aldrich's) trial was coming up and the prosecution clearly was not ready to proceed ... the trial judge had no choice but to dismiss the case," Farrell said.

    Judges can appoint special prosecutors in extreme situations, such as when a decision not to prosecute is done in bad faith, Farrell said. But the 2021 case did not appear to rise to that bar, he said, because witnesses in the case were unavailable.

    Howard Black, spokesperson for the district attorney's office, has said he cannot share information about the kidnapping case because it's part of the current investigation. El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen has said his office did everything it could to prosecute the case, including trying to subpoena Aldrich's mother, but has repeatedly declined to elaborate.

    During the 2021 standoff, Aldrich allegedly told the frightened grandparents about firearms and bomb-making material in the basement of the home they all shared. Aldrich vowed not to let the grandparents interfere with plans to "go out in a blaze."

    Aldrich livestreamed on Facebook a subsequent confrontation with SWAT teams at the house of their mother, Laura Voepel, where the defendant eventually surrendered, was arrested and had weapons, ammunition and more than 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of explosive materials seized.

    The FBI had received a tip on Aldrich a day before the threat but closed out the case just weeks later with no federal charges filed.


    By August 2021, when Aldrich bonded out of jail, the grandparents were describing the suspect as a "sweet young" person, according to the transcripts. At two subsequent hearings that fall, defense attorneys described how Aldrich was attending therapy and was on medications, the transcripts show.

    In an October 2021 courtroom exchange, Chittum told Aldrich to "hang in there with the meds."

    "It's an adjustment period for sure," Aldrich replied, to which the judge replied, "Yeah it will settle, don't worry. Good luck."

    The case had been headed toward a plea agreement early this year but fell apart after family members stopped cooperating and prosecutors failed to successfully serve a subpoena to testify to Aldrich's 69-year-old grandmother Pamela Pullen, who was bedridden in Florida.

    There is scant discussion in the transcripts of efforts by prosecutors to subpoena other potential witnesses — including Aldrich's mother, grandfather and a fourth person who is listed in court documents but not identified.

    Although authorities missed some warning signs about Aldrich's capability for violence, the opposite happened across the country in Minnesota this week, where a man who said he idolized Aldrich was arrested after trying to buy grenades from an FBI informant and building an arsenal of automatic weapons to use against police, according to charges.
    (highlights are mine)

    This story just demonstrates how screwed up our socity and the judicial system is.

    By refusing to hold individuals responsible for their inappropriate actions, it leads to totalitarian government intervention with draconian edicts against everyone, including innocent people who want to be law-abiding. Eventually, those draconian totalitarian edicts will spark a negative response - even by those who want to be law-abiding.

    ...

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Colorado Springs Gay Bar Shooter - Another FBI & Local LEO Failure

    Quote Originally Posted by Carson View Post
    It was unknown when unsealed documents will be posted online. Chittum ruled despite objections from the suspect's attorney and mother.


    I am thinking the mom dropped the charges against her son and that is why she doesn*t want the documents released.
    Mom can*t drop charges. The DA can drop charges.

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    Default Re: Colorado Springs Gay Bar Shooter - Another FBI & Local LEO Failure

    Quote Originally Posted by DMG View Post
    Mom can*t drop charges. The DA can drop charges.
    Correct. But the mom can refuse to cooperate as a complainant and then the DA has very little to no case and has to drop charges.

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    Default Re: Colorado Springs Gay Bar Shooter - Another FBI & Local LEO Failure

    Quote Originally Posted by Jabberwocky View Post
    Sounds like somebody doesn*t like a certain demographic.
    Not liking the radical gay agenda is not a vice

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