The mother of the suspect in the deadly attack at a Colorado Springs, Colo., LGBTQ club received a citation for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest hours after the attack, police said.
Officers showed up at Laura Voepel’s home after authorities said Anderson Lee Aldrich opened fire inside Club Q, killing five people.
A Colorado Springs Police Department report said Voepel, 45, was warned “multiple times to stop yelling” and “continued to make unreasonable noise directly next to several apartments.”
Police have not revealed what he was yelling.
When an officer attempted to take Voepel into custody, “she became combative by physically resisting the officers’ control by force,” the report says.
She received the summons, which means she was summoned and released at the scene, at 3:30 a.m. on November 20, more than three hours after police received a 911 call about the nightclub shooting. .
No attorney information was included for Voepel, whose arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 25, 2023, court records show.
In addition to the five deaths, 17 people were injured in the Club Q shooting, according to police. Five others were injured but not by gunshot wounds. Twelve more were victims with no visible injuries, police said.
The suspect has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of committing those crimes as part of a bias attack. An El Paso County judge last week ordered Aldrich held without bond.
A look into Aldrich’s past revealed a tumultuous upbringing and fractured family life.
The suspect was known as Nicholas Franklin Brink until 2016. Weeks before his 16th birthday, Aldrich petitioned a Texas court for a name change, court records show. His grandparents, who were his legal guardians at the time, filed a name change petition on Brink’s behalf.
Aldrich’s father, Aaron Brink, a former mixed martial arts fighter who later starred in pornographic films, told the CBS affiliate KFMB from San Diego who thought Aldrich had committed suicide several years ago until this year.
Brink has an extensive criminal history, including convictions for assault against Voepel, both before and after the suspect’s birth, state and federal court records show. A 2002 California misdemeanor assault conviction resulted in a protective order that initially prohibited Brink from contacting the suspect or Voepel except through an attorney, but was later amended to allow monitored visitation with the child, reported The Associated Press.
Brink said she divorced Voepel shortly after their son was born.
