When a kidnapping and felony menacing case against the alleged Club Q shooter was dismissed Aug. 11, the 22-year-old’s mother was elated.

The next day, Laura Voepel took Anderson Aldrich to a Colorado Springs shooting range to celebrate.   

“He was a free man,” said his neighbor, Xavier Kraus, who related a text message from Voepel.

Aldrich was no longer in trouble, an IRS check had arrived, and Kraus’ birthday was coming up.   

“Let’s celebrate!” Voepel wrote Kraus at 11:32 a.m. on Aug. 12. And then she wrote, “Off to the range.”  

At around 2 p.m. that day, Voepel followed up that message with a series of short text videos of her and Aldrich practicing with a semi-automatic rifle at a nearby shooting range.   

“It was my impression that everything was going good for him. It was a good day,” said Kraus, who shared the videos with The Denver Gazette. Kraus said he was in Florida when they were sent to him.   

The footage shows Aldrich zeroing in on paper silhouette targets at an indoor shooting range, wearing a set of headphones to help cushion the noise. In one video, Voepel‘s hand rests on Aldrich’s back and Aldrich appears to shrug it away.  

Voepel posted similar videos from that day on her then-public Facebook page with an explanation that she and Aldrich had tried out an AR–15 and a second weapon she referred to as a “14.”  

Sources told The Gazette that law enforcement officers have been gathering surveillance video, including some from the Magnum Shooting Center in north Colorado Springs. A Gazette reporter’s visit to Magnum and several other attempts to speak with the center’s owner were unsuccessful. Last Sunday morning, Magnum’s parking lot was largely quiet but soon began to get busy with a weekend rush of families who entered the center’s turreted black entrance for target practice.  

Aldrich told a judge during a hearing in his 2021 kidnapping case that going to shooting ranges was a mother-son activity, and that they went to Dragon Man‘s east of Colorado Springs “multiple times a week … It was highly therapeutic for me and was a great way to spend spare time.”  

Dragon Man’s owner Mel Bernstein told The Denver Gazette he had never seen Aldrich at his range.  

“We get 80 people a day here. It’s impossible to know everyone who shows up,“ he said. 

When asked if authorities had interviewed him, Bernstein paused, said he didn’t want to be associated with the case, and hung up.   

The Colorado Springs Police Department, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and 4th Judicial District Attorney‘s Office declined to comment, citing the ongoing Club Q investigation.   

FBI spokeswoman Vikki Migoya told The Denver Gazette that her agency does not typically confirm, deny or provide updates on specific investigations. However, she said, “FBI Denver has provided assistance and support” in the Club Q case.  

Earlier this month, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen charged Aldrich with 305 criminal counts – including multiple counts alleging hate crimes and murder – in the Club Q shooting. Five people were killed and 17 wounded in the Nov. 19 attack.  

Knowing what he does now, Kraus said he questions Voepel’s judgment in rewarding Aldrich with a trip to a shooting range. She was one of the alleged victims in the June 18, 2021, kidnapping and felony menacing investigation. Her mother and stepfather, Pamela and Jonathan Pullen, also were listed as victims in that case.   

But during a year-long friendship, Kraus said Aldrich had downplayed the seriousness of the 2021 case, shrugging it off as being exaggerated by law enforcement.   

According to court documents, however, the case was so alarming that a judge slapped Aldrich with a $1 million bond. A few weeks later, Judge Robin Chittum predicted that Aldrich needed treatment or “it’s going to be so bad,” courtroom transcripts reveal. “You clearly have been planning for something else.”

That same day, she reduced Aldrich’s bond to $100,000.

After the Pullens were held at gunpoint by their grandson in June 2021, Pam Pullen told officers that Aldrich “wanted to be the next mass killer,” and that he was collecting ammunition and firearms in the basement, the arrest affidavit showed. She also told police that she believed he was making a bomb and “wanted to go out in a blaze,” according to the document. 

Though Aldrich was charged with three counts of kidnapping, a trial never happened. The case was dropped and sealed after subpoenas for Aldrich’s family as critical witnesses in the upcoming trial were not successfully served.  

Kraus said he last heard from Aldrich Sept. 15 in a text exchange detailing a squabble over a borrowed bottle of Windex. 

And despite the fact that there was a strict protection order forbidding Aldrich to come in contact with his mother, the two continued to live together for a year. The restraining order, which was signed by Aldrich on Aug. 5, 2021, was stipulated to be in effect until either the case was dismissed, or, in the case of an appeal, until the disposition of the appeal. 

That order was dissolved when the case was dismissed on Aug. 11, 2022. 

The following month, Voepel and Aldrich moved out of the apartment complex on North Nevada Avenue. It is believed that the pair then lived together in an apartment on North Union Boulevard until Nov. 19, the date of the Club Q shooting.

Gazette investigative reporter Christopher Osher contributed to this story.