The owner of Club Q in Colorado Springs said he experienced both an outpouring of support and an avalanche of hate in the wake of the mass shooting that left five dead and dozens of others wounded, and lamented that he’s had to make the bar practically “bulletproof” ahead of its re-opening.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, who attacked the LGBT+ nightclub on 19 November, entered a guilty plea in an El Paso County courtroom on Monday. The plea was part of an agreement reducing the number of charges against them from 305 to 53.
They pleaded guilty to five counts of first degree murder, 46 counts of attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of bias-driven crimes.
Matt Haynes, who owns Club Q and was not at the venue at the time of the attack, spoke during Aldrich’s plea hearing, calling him a “small person in a large body, full of hate and disregard.”
Mr Haynes spoke to reporters following Aldrich's plea hearing.
Mr Haynes arrived at the club shortly after the shooting ended and spend hours pouring over violent security footage that captured the shooting to help the FBI in its investigation of the attack.
He said that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting he was hesitant to re-open, fearing that another attack on the community built up around the club might occur.
Mr Haynes also noted that he received "hundreds of emails" supporting the murder of LGBT+ people.
"We received hundreds of emails — hundreds of emails — that our heroes had stopped God's work, and that there should have been more people killed in this club," he said.
Mr Haynes said it took him 10 days to decide whether or not he would re-open. He ultimately decided that he would re-open, in the same location, thanks in part to the swell of support he found from the Colorado Springs community.
He said immediately after the shooting, the city's chief of police put in place "an army of people to start supporting us, as a community to start supporting our victims and the rest of the community."
Mr Haynes praised the "amazing people" who have stepped up to support the grieving community, and noted that "hundreds and hundreds" of people would visit the makeshift memorial outside of the club remembering the five killed during the attack.
Matthew Haynes, the co-owner of Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where a mass shooter attacked and killed five people and wounded dozens of others in November, testifies before Congress— (screengrab/CSPAN)
Though Aldrich will now face prison, the scars of his attack — both in the memory of those lost and in the way Mr Haynes runs his business — will linger on.
The club owner said that part of his re-opening strategy has been to rebuild the interior of the club with defense in mind.
Mr Haynes said the FBI has been working with Club Q to help improve its security, including installing measures like metal detectors and "high duck and hide areas."
He said that the re-opening plan has been "dominated by safety concerns," which Mr Haynes said are things "one should never have to plan for when opening a business."
The fact that he must consider installing places for his patrons to hide from bullets is, in his estimation, a damning statement on the state of the US.
"Are we proud of that? Are we proud that the gun violence is so prevalent under the hood?" he said.
He said that he has to "rebuild the club, and almost make it bulletproof, just so we can feel safe."
"That's not — that's not moving forward," he said. "And that's not an America that I'm proud of. And we need to change that."
