On Saturday, Nov. 19, a heavily-armed gunman entered Club Q, the preeminent LGBTQ+ establishment in the conservative leaning Colorado Springs, and opened fire on the clubgoers.
The attacker killed five people and left 17 others with injuries before being subdued by an US Army veteran and a drag performer.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, is facing five counts of murder and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury.
“One of the performers was walking by and I told her kick him,” said Richard Fierro, the veteran who was attending a drag performance at the club with his wife and daughter when the attack took place. “And she took her high heel and stuffed it in his face.”
Reports have since revealed details about Aldrich’s biological father, Aaron Brink, who once fought for the UFC.
Brink was encouraged to complete in mixed martial arts by former UFC champion Tito Ortiz, who was his old friend from high school. He debuted in 1998, shortly after serving time in prison on drug charges, and compiled a 3-1 record by the time his son was born two years later. Within a matter of months, Brink went on to face debuting fighter (and future UFC champion) Andrei Arlovski at UFC 28.
Brink went on to compile a 29-27 MMA record over the course of a 21-year career that included fights in King of the Cage, RINGS, and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC).
Brink also performed as a pornographic actor for Vivid Entertainment and other mainstream entities using the stage name Dick Delaware. According to IMDb, it was adult films which led him to start habitually using drugs like crystal methamphetamine. In 2009, he appeared on the A&E reality show Intervention, where his family and friends confronted him about his drug use.
The Gazette also reported that Aldrich’s maternal grandfather is California state assemblyman Randy Voepel, the former mayor of Santee, California. Voepel faced criticism last year after comparing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to the Revolutionary War.
The Club Q attack is the deadliest mass shooting targeting the LGBTQ+ community since 49 people were killed in a shooting at the Pulse gay club in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.
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