Relative of alleged Colorado shooter warned judge of danger they posed

A California woman who warned a judge last year about the danger posed by the suspect in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting said on Friday that the deaths could have been prevented if earlier charges against the suspect had not been dismissed.

Aldrich should have been in prison at the time of the shooting and prevented from obtaining weapons, she told the Associated Press on Friday.

The case was derailed because prosecutors could not properly serve subpoenas to the Pullens, who had moved to Florida, and Voepel, who was still in Colorado Springs, and ran out of time under fair trial rules, according to the district attorney, Michael Allen, and court documents.

Former deputy district attorney Mark Waller, who ran against Allen in the last election, said prosecutors should have amended charges to obstruction of justice, given that Aldrich was deemed so dangerous a Swat team and bomb squad had to be deployed and surrounding homes evacuated.

He dismissed the idea prosecutors could have pursued charges for the harm caused to neighbors during the bomb scare, noting that evacuations happen a lot. Prosecutors filed charges based on the evidence they had and what they ethically believed they could prove in court, Black said.

She has not seen Jonathan Pullen since 2010 and had lost touch with him since the bomb scare. He has not returned her recent call and text messages and her other brother has not spoken with him.

Aldrich tried to reclaim guns seized by authorities after the 2021 threat, but they were not returned, according to Allen. But soon after the charges were dropped, Aldrich boasted of having regained firearms and showed former roommate Xavier Kraus two rifles, body armor and incendiary rounds, Kraus told AP.

Aldrich was formally charged on Tuesday with 305 criminal counts, including hate crimes and murder, in connection with the 19 November shooting at Club Q, a sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in mostly conservative Colorado Springs.