New footage obtained by The Gazette shows events during a 2021 bomb threat that lead to the arrest of 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, whose name and age match that of the suspect arrested in Saturday’s Club Q shooting. In this screen recording provided by the owner of the house where Aldrich’s mother lived at the time of the threat, a man appears to be live-streaming the bomb threat while wearing body armor.

A state law passed by legislators in 2019 automatically prevents the retrieval of criminal records when a case is entirely dismissed – and that same statute is likely what sealed the records from a 2021 bomb threat incident in which a man with the same name and age as the Club Q shooting suspect was arrested.  

The 2019 legislation, which modified previous statutes dealing with the sealing of criminal records, is a part of a slew of legislation introduced over the years that supporters say would make it easier for individuals who faced charges to return to some semblance of normalcy.

The ability to seal records in cases where charges have been dismissed has been in Colorado’s statutes for decades.

In June 2021, an Anderson Lee Aldrich was arrested over a bomb threat that forced residents in a Lorson Ranch neighborhood in southeast Colorado Springs to evacuate from their homes for about three hours.

A press release El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said that a woman reported that her son, Aldrich, “threatened to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition.”

No formal charges were pursued in that case, which has since been sealed.

Authorities would not confirm that Aldrich, the suspect in the Club Q shooting that killed five people, is the same man arrested in the 2021 bomb threat incident.

In 2019, legislators approved – and Gov. Jared Polis signed – a proposal to automatically seal the criminal record if a case is completely dismissed.

The bipartisan law, which Reps. Michael Weissman, D-Aurora and Matt Soper, R-Delta, and Sen. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs sponsored, simplified the process for sealing criminal justice records under several conditions:

• The case against a defendant is completely dismissed because the defendant is acquitted of all counts;

• The defendant completes a diversion agreement; or

• The defendant completes a deferred judgment and sentence, and all counts are dismissed.

The court must, under these situations, automatically seal those records without requiring the defendant to file a separate civil action to do so, although the law also adds a caveat that, if the record isn’t sealed, the defendant can petition the court to do so.

The law also allows a defendant to petition the court to seal the criminal records in the case of a criminal conviction in petty offenses, misdemeanor charges and more serious offenses after a certain time has elapsed. Under the law, the district court can, depending on the offense, object to the sealing.

The law specifies that law enforcement can access and use the sealed records for the purposes of an investigation of any case.

A legislative analysis at the time of the law’s passage said that, between 2014 and 2018, about 1,785 petitions were filed to seal criminal conviction cases, or on average, 357 civil cases a year. Under the legislation, some 65,146 cases annually would be eligible for record sealing. The legislative analysis said it is assumed that, in 10% of these case, defendants will file a motion to seal the records.

Little is known about the 2021 incident. A man believed to be Aldrich had called an editor at the Colorado Springs Gazette in August and asked that the story on The Gazette’s website be removed since the case was dropped.

Authorities said “interactions with law enforcement” by Aldrich are part of the broader investigation into the Club Q shooting.