Club Q victims sue officials for failing to use red flag law to protect them

Victims and their family members of the 2022 mass shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub that was a shelter for the LGBTQ community are suing El Paso County commissioners and sheriff for failing to prevent the tragedy by using the state’s red flag law.

County officials had “ample reason” to remove the shooter’s guns under the 2019 Colorado law, officially known as the Extreme Risk Protection Order, which allows for the removal of firearms from people considered a danger to themselves or others, according to the lawsuit.

“Law enforcement missed critical opportunities to prevent this tragedy,” says the federal lawsuit filed Sunday, nearly two years to the day after the Nov. 19, 2022, attack. “The shooter had a history of making threats and violent behavior that clearly warranted intervention.”

The lawsuit was filed by John Arcediano, Jancarlos Del Valle, Ashtin Gamblin, Jerecho Loveall, Anthony Malburg, Charlene Slaugh, James Slaugh and Brianna Winningham, and on behalf of victims Raymond Green, Kelly Loving and Derrick Rump. A separate lawsuit was filed by Barrett Hudson, who was shot seven times.

Five people were killed and 19 others injured in the shooting. Anderson Lee Aldrich, who was 22 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty in June to 50 federal hate crime charges and was sentenced to life in prison.

Five months before the shooting, Aldrich was arrested by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for threatening his grandparents. Aldrich was accused of vowing to become “the next mass killer” while stockpiling weapons, body armor and bomb-making materials. Aldrich’s mother and grandparents did not cooperate with authorities and the charges were ultimately dropped, according to court testimony.

After the Club Q shooting, investigators discovered that Aldrich created two websites to post hateful content about the LGBTQ community. They also discovered that Aldrich shared recordings of 911 calls during the 2016 killings of 49 people at the gay-friendly Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

In conservative El Paso County, county officials denounced the red flag law, and when the Club Q shooting occurred, the sheriff’s office had not filed any requests under the law to remove the firearms of a person.

In March 2019, before the state law was signed, the El Paso County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution declaring El Paso County a “Second Amendment Preserve County.”

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, led by former Sheriff Bill Elder, adopted a policy opposing the red flag law and stated that no sheriff’s employee would file a petition under the law “unless urgent circumstances exist” and there is probable cause that “a crime is being or has been committed.”

At a news conference in Denver on Tuesday, the victims said they were suffering physical pain and mental anguish two years later.

Charlene Slaugh, who was shot several times, underwent several surgeries and has “come a long way” physically, she said. But “the pain and the memories are as vivid as if they were yesterday,” she said. “There are still many times when the weight of it all becomes completely overwhelming. There is a deep loneliness that accompanies trauma like this.

“I remember what it felt like to wonder if I was going to survive.”

James Slaugh said he struggled with hypervigilance – always looking for the nearest exit, feeling anxious in every crowded space. He is regularly awakened by nightmares related to the shooting.

“Surviving doesn’t mean it’s over,” he said.

The plaintiffs are bringing in the Chicago-based law firm Romanucci & Blandin, which has represented victims of several mass shootings across the country. The lawsuit does not seek a specific monetary amount.

Hudson, who filed a separate lawsuit, had recently moved to Colorado and was at Club Q for about 30 minutes when the shooting began, said his Colorado Springs attorney, Brad Bufkin. He was shot seven times, then called his father to tell him he loved him as he lay on the ground for 30 minutes waiting for help. At the hospital, his clothes were cut from his body and he was placed on a metal gurney, “not knowing if he was going to live or die,” Bufkin said. “He was scared and covered in his own blood.”

Hudson still has three bullets in his body because doctors determined it was too dangerous to remove them. He lives in constant pain and can no longer do the construction job he did with his father, his lawyer said.

“Every ache and pain is a reminder of what he saw and heard that night,” Bufkin said.

The lawsuit filed by the victims and families also claims that the owners of Club Q were negligent in failing to provide sufficient security at the club.

At the time of the shooting at Pulse in Orlando, Club Q in Colorado Springs had a “robust security team,” consisting of at least five security guards, including one with a loaded firearm, according to the lawsuit. But the emphasis on security “decreased significantly” in subsequent years, and in 2022 Club Q had only one security guard, who was unarmed. The sole security employee also served as a bar server and food runner, according to the lawsuit.

“He did his best to protect his clients, but found himself faced with an impossible task,” the lawsuit says. “Club Q presented itself as a “safe space” for LGBTBQIA+ people. But it was a facade.

Those killed in the shooting were Green, Loving, Rump, Daniel Aston and Ashley Paugh.

Green’s mother, Adriana Vance, said she constantly asks herself what could have been done differently to prevent her son’s death. His dog became his best friend.

“My grief comes in waves,” she said. “I learned to surf them.”