The FBI says it received a tip-off about the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting suspect one day before he was arrested for threatening to kill relatives in 2021.
The agency told the Associated Press that Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was on their radar prior to an armed-standoff with police on 18 June 2021 but that the case was later closed.
It had previously been thought that Aldrich had not been known to law enforcement before making threats to blow up a family home.
Aldrich was charged with 305 criminal counts relating to the 6 December assault on Club Q during a court appearance this week.
In the 2021 incident, Aldrich live-streamed footage of himself armed with assault rifles and dressed in tactical gear while threatening to blow his grandparent’s Colorado Springs home to “holy hell”.
As law enforcement surrounded the address, Aldrich shouted: “This is your boy, I’ve got the f***ing s***heads outside, they’ve got a beat on me.”
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the AP, his grandparents had called 911 to say Aldrich had explosive materials and was threatening to kill them.
He was reportedly upset about the grandparents moving to Florida, because it would get in the way of Aldrich’s plans to conduct a mass shooting.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office arrested Aldrich on charges of felony menacing and three counts of third-degree kidnapping, they said in a press release at the time.
The file was sealed and no charges were formally brought against Aldrich.
Authorities say Aldrich stormed the LGBTQ+ nightclub on 6 December and immediately began spraying clubgoers with automatic gunfire.
Five people were killed, and 19 wounded in the attack before he was subdued and beaten with his own handgun by a former Army captain.
Aldrich is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and dozens of hate crimes, attempted murder, and first and second degree assault counts.
Aldrich, whose public defenders say the suspect identifies as nonbinary and uses they and them pronouns, remains in jail without bond.
