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LEARN MOREPosted: 9:43 p.m. EST Dec 7, 2022
The shooting suspect in a Colorado Springs gay nightclub arrived at the club about one minute before the first 911 call — a startling timeline illustrating how rapidly the killings unfolded.
New photos showed the suspect opening fire while entering the club, with such aggressive firing, investigators believed rounds may have struck the exterior of a 7-11 store a full block away.
Details of the gruesome attack, which killed five and injured more than a dozen others, were included in the newly unsealed arrest warrant against the alleged killer.
Prosecutors charged the suspect with 305 separate crimes. Among them were charges of hate crimes — a difficult charge to substantiate when motivation is an issue.
"The bias motivated statute was actually changed only a couple of years ago," said Michael Allen, Colorado's 4th Judicial District Attorney. "If it was not for that change, we would probably not be able to charge it in this case. So the wording was changed to allow it to be committed in whole or in part based on bias, and there's a whole list of biases listed in that statute."
The new information on the attack comes amid fresh reports that law enforcement knew how risky the suspect might have been. More than a year prior, the suspect was arrested after barricading inside their grandparents home and threatening to blow it up, saying they were going to become "the next mass killer."
The charges from that day were dropped, though it isn't clear why, as the case is sealed. No firearms were seized either, despite Colorado's so-called "red flag" law allowing authorities to take guns from someone deemed a risk to themselves or others.
The ordeal prompted a fresh debate about gun control in a state besieged by mass shootings, with 10 major killings since the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999.
"We have a limit on the magazine, we have background checks," Democratic Colorado Sen. Rhonda Fields said. "You shouldn't be able to, at a very young age, get access to these weapons and then use it to harm other people without anybody thinking, 'Maybe we should think twice before we allow that to happen,' as well as with age limits."
