DENVER (AP) — Victims and mothers of those killed in the mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs in 2022 have filed lawsuits alleging that the murders could've been prevented if the sheriff's office used the state's red flag law after clear warning signs that the gunman intended to commit violence.
The plaintiffs in the two lawsuits, filed Sunday, include survivor Barrett Hudson, who still has three bullets in his body from that night, and other victims and relatives. They are scheduled to speak about the legal action at a news conference Tuesday — which is the two year anniversary of the shooting at the nightclub, Club Q.
Families and victims also accuse the nightclub’s owners in the lawsuit of winnowing Club Q’s security detail from five or more people to just one in the years leading up to the shooting, prioritizing profits over the safety.
“Club Q advertised itself as a ‘safe place’ for LGBTQIA+ individuals. But that was a façade,” read both the complaints, which allege negligence among other allegations.
A central focus of both lawsuits was the El Paso County commissioners' and the then sheriff's refusal to enforce Colorado's red flag law passed in 2019, which allows law enforcement to temporary take someone's firearm if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others.
Natalie Sosa, a spokesperson for El Paso County, said it does not comment on pending litigation.
The county commissioners and sheriff saw the red flag law as an encroachment on gun rights, and passed a resolution to be a “Second Amendment preservation county" and, alongside the then sheriff, vowed to “actively resist” the bill, according to court documents.
The lawsuits argue that authorities should have used the red flag law after the arrest of the gunman, Anderson Aldrich, a year before he would walk into Club Q firing indiscriminately.
Those killed in the shooting were Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump and Ashley Paugh.
In 2021, Aldrich was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and threatening to kill his grandparents, reportedly saying he would become the “next mass killer" and collecting ammunition, bomb-making materials, firearms and body armor, according to court documents.
“You clearly have been planning for something else,” a judge told Aldrich in an 2021 hearing, according to documents previously obtained by The Associated Press. "It was saving all these firearms and trying to make this bomb and making statements about other people being involved in some sort of shootout and a huge thing."
The judge later dismissed all charges for “failure to prosecute” during a four-minute hearing, partly because the prosecution hadn't been able serve subpoenas to key victims, according to documents obtained by the AP.
Authorities did not attempt to remove Aldrich's weapons, the lawsuits allege, and “This deliberate inaction allowed the shooter continued access to firearms, directly enabling the attack on Club Q.”
The suits separately allege negligence and wrongful death against the El Paso County commissioners and former sheriff.
Aldrich, now 24, pled guilty to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to a life in prison in 2023 in state court. A year later, Aldrich pled guilty in a federal court to hate crimes and was sentenced to an additional 55 life terms in prison.
Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
FILE - Rev. Paula Stecker of the Christ the King Lutheran Church stands in front of a memorial set up outside Club Q following a mass shooting at the gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., Nov. 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, File)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The family of a worker killed last week in an explosion at a Louisville manufacturing plant said Monday they begged authorities to search the wreckage for his remains after they were told all employees were accounted for.
Kevens Dawson Jr.'s body was found inside the Givaudan Color Sense plant after rescuers returned to the building late in the night at the family's urging, Dawson's girlfriend, Malaika Watson, told reporters Monday.
The Nov. 12 afternoon explosion at the factory that makes colorings for the food industry rocked the surrounding neighborhood, left two workers dead and injured 11. Dozens of homes around the plant in eastern Louisville had their windows shattered and the percussion from the blast knocked pictures off walls and cracked drywall in some homes. Investigators said Monday they believe a cooking vessel in the plant overheated, causing the blast.
Lawyers retained by Dawson's family pledged to find the cause of the blast and why Dawson was unaccounted for for several hours.
“We're going to get to the bottom of everything that happened here, so none of the family has to go through what Kevens Dawson's family is going through today,” Ben Crump, a high-profile civil rights attorney, said at an afternoon news conference Monday.
Dawson's family said he worked at the plant for just over a year and would have turned 50 years old this week. He had three adult children.
Watson became emotional as she recounted how she was told to go to three different hospitals to see if Dawson had been admitted. She was told there were two workers in critical condition, but neither was Dawson. She returned to the site of the plant at around 7 p.m., but was turned away by officers at the scene.
“I just wanted to go in,” she said.
Watson ran through a gap in the fence and nearly made it to the wreckage of the plant before she was pulled away. She remained at the scene for hours afterward.
“Not until 11:30 (p.m.) did they say, ‘Oh, we found someone else,’” Watson said. “But it was too late.”
Watson said her boyfriend, who served in the Army, was the “strongest man I’ve ever met.”
“He’s not just a man. He’s a man’s man, and all he wanted to do was work and provide for his family,” Watson said, fighting through tears.
Louisville officials said they were initially told by the company that all employees were accounted for, though that information was wrong, so firefighters went back into the dangerous scene. When Dawson was found, he was pronounced dead at the scene, fire officials said last week.
Crump and a team of attorneys said Monday they have not filed a lawsuit, but are doing an investigation of the blast. An explosion at the same plant in 2003 killed one worker.
The president of the plant told reporters last week the company is accountable for the accident and will pay damages to residents affected by the blast.
A special response team from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted a multi-day investigation and said Monday that preliminary findings indicate it was a cooking vessel that overheated. They said there were no hazardous materials involved in the explosion and it was not caused by any “nefarious act by any individual on site the day of the explosion.”
Later in the evening, leadership from Givaudan hosted a community meeting, where tensions rose as residents complained that the company has not been responsive to their needs in the aftermath of the explosion.
Company president Ann Leonard told residents it's likely the plant will move out of the neighborhood, which was met with cheers. But many remained irritated that company officials have not sent representatives door-to-door to check on residents.
Some are still unable to move back into their homes nearly a week later.
The electricity in Eunice Stone's home has remained cut off since the explosion, and she and her husband have moved into an extended stay hotel. The couple lived just a few yards away from the plant's property, and the explosion has continued to give her headaches days later, she said.
“That blast was so horrible,” she said after the meeting Monday night. “My head is still throbbing.”
A large metal piece of debris that was flung across a street by a blast at a Louisville, Ky, plant is shown on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. Two workers died in the explosion at the Givaudan Color Sense plant in Louisville. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan)
The area is closed off showing damage from an explosion at the Givaudan Color Sense plant in Louisville, Ky. on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan)
A portrait of Kevens Dawson Jr. is shown on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. Dawson was one of two workers killed in a plant explosion on Nov. 12. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan)
Malaika Watson, center, the girlfriend of a worker killed in a Louisville plant explosion, tells her story at a news conference on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024 in Louisville, Ky. (AP Dylan Lovan)
