Mother of Club Q shooter sues five Colorado Springs police officers for constitutional rights violations on night of attack

The mother of the person convicted in the 2022 Club Q shooting is suing five officers from the Colorado Springs Police Department for violating her constitutional rights on the night of the deadly attack.

Laura Voepel, through her Denver-based attorney Jason Kosloski, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Monday. It alleges the five officers entered Voepel’s home without a warrant in the early morning hours of Nov. 20, following the shooting. The officers then locked Voepel outside of her home on the frigid night while they continued their search. When she became loud and emotional outside the home, she was arrested for disorderly conduct and placed in custody under a psychiatric hold, according to court documents. 

“Ms. Voepel was at her home in Colorado Springs. Unbeknownst to Ms. Voepel, her son, Anderson Aldrich, had just committed a serious crime. Ms. Voepel had nothing to do with her son’s actions that night,” the lawsuit reads. (Aldrich uses they/them pronouns, according to lawyers.) 

The suit brings seven claims against the officers on First and Fourth Amendment grounds as well as violations of the Colorado Constitution. 

“Ms. Voepel hopes that this case brings her some justice and sends a message that no matter how tragic the events leading to a police investigation may be, the police may not disregard the constitutional rights of any citizen,” the lawsuit reads. 

The shooter, a then 22-year-old, entered the LGBTQ nightclub shortly before midnight on Nov. 19, 2022 and began firing an AR-15-style rifle into the crowd. Five people were killed and at least 20 more were injured before the shooter was wrestled to the ground by patrons of the club. The shooter is currently serving multiple life sentences in prison for both the federal and state convictions in the case.    

Voepel, who now lives in Florida, claims she knew nothing about the attack when Colorado Springs Police Officers Matthew Anderson and Peter Mandry and Detective Rebecca Joins arrived at her home. Police Sergeant Reuben Crews and Officer Timothy Hockersmith arrived shortly after. The lawsuit seeks damages from the five officers in their personal capacity, not from the city of Colorado Springs nor from the Police Department. 

The disorderly conduct case against Voepel was dismissed late last year, following nearly two years of court proceedings. In that time, she was found mentally incompetent to stand trial on multiple occasions, suffering from anxiety, depression and PTSD. Court documents state her mental state deteriorated “to an extreme degree” during the period and that “there is no substantial probability that she will be (or even could be) restored to competency in the foreseeable future.”

“The mass shooting at Club Q was a horrific act of evil, and its effects have had an everlasting impact on our community,” said Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez in a statement to CPR News. “While we cannot comment specifically on active litigation, CSPD stands by the response of our officers and the comprehensive work of our department to bring justice to the victims of this mass shooting.”