BY JOEL CALAMBA ESCOL, Managing Editor
3rd of a series
MDNN International (Nov 25) – The police investigation showed the suspect at Club Q mass shooting has legally purchased the AR style assault rifle he used in the deadly mass murders Saturday night in Colorado Springs.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez told the media that the suspect, identified as Anderson Lee Alcrich, just came in at Club Q and as soon as he reached the main door started spraying bullets, killing at least five people and wounding 19 others.
Over a few minutes of rampage, an ex-army who celebrated his birthday with family inside the bar, confronted the insane shooter and prevented him from further fatalities and injuries. As soon as he grabbed the handgun he used it in beating the alleged shooter. Another man also helped and throw the AR-style assault rifle away from the shooter’s reach.
The police named the two heroes as US ex-army Richard Fierro and Thomas James. Fierro has served in the US army during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than 14 years, it was learned.
Meanwhile, The Club Q alleged shooter is now facing five counts of bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, or what is known as hate crime law in Colorado. Another five counts of murder will also be charged against the suspect.
The night the suspect sow terror
Lt. Pamela Castro, spokesperson for the Colorado Springs Police Department, told reporters the first call for assistance at 911 was received at 11:56 p.m. on Saturday night (Nov 19).
A police officer was also dispatched to the crime scene and arrived around midnight. At 12:02 a.m. the suspect was already under controlled by the two heroes and detained by the police at around 12:02 a.m.
Michael Anderson, one of the bartenders at Club Q, narrated to the media that at the height of the sudden attack, he saw the “the shadow of a grown man holding a gun.”
He said it was then followed by glass shatters and bottles breaking. He said he scampered for safety and run outside to the patio to hide and save himself from the insane man shooting indiscriminately on innocent clubgoers.
“It was absolute chaos. People were running, screaming. And the screaming intensified as people became aware of what was happening. No one ever expected that here. I am haunted by some of the things I saw,” he said.
Upbringing of the suspect in question
According to the report the suspect’s father is a pornography performer and s mixed martial artist with an extensive criminal history. He was convicted of a battery crime against the alleged shooter’s mother, Laura Voepel. The reported battery against his father’s wife happened even before and after the alleged shooter was born, based on state and federal records.
In 2002, his father known as a certain Aaron F. Brink, was meted with a misdemeanor battery in California which resulted into a protective, initially barring the father from contacting his son or even his wife Laura. The only Aaron can make a contact with both his wife and son was only through a lawyer. It was later modified to allow monitored visitation of the father to his son.
CHANGE OF NAME
The Mindanao Daily research team also learned that the shooting suspect’s first real name was Nicholas Franklin Brink which he used until 2016. Several weeks before he turned 16, the shooting suspect petitioned a Texas court purposely for changing his name into Anderson Lee Aldrich. The change of name documents were submitted by his legal guardians who were his grand parents at the time of the petition.
“Minor wishes to protect himself and his future from any connections to birth father and his criminal history. Father has had no contact with minor for several years,” according to the petition, which was filed in Bexar County, Texas.
