The Case of Nicholas Brink, the Next Mass Murderer, During a Stand-off with the Law Enforcement in Colorado Springs, where he was raised by his grandmother

CNN came across an emerging portrait of the suspect in the Colorado nightclub shooting which showed he was bullied as a teenager and raised for a time by his grandmother.

He lived with his grandmother in Colorado Springs. The rented room was where his mother lived. During a stand-off with police in the wake of a bomb threat, Aldrich broadcasted a video on his mother’s Facebook page, which purported to show him inside the house.

The case has been sealed and left unanswered questions about how Aldrich avoided prosecution in a matter that might have banned him from legally owning a weapon.

In June 2021, Aldrich was taken into custody for making a threat that led to the ousting of about 10 homes. The documents show how the grandparents were scared by Aldrich’s plans to be the next mass murderer and that Aldrich promised not to let them interfere with his plans.

Aldrich was born in May of 2000 under the name Nicholas Brink, and is the son of Laura Voepel and Aaron Brink, who married in 1999. Neither parent could be reached for comment. His father filed for divorce in September 2001 in Orange County, California, citing irreconcilable differences. In his initial petition, he asked the court to grant full physical custody to Voepel, butnywayanydaynywayanydaynywayanyday legal custody andvisitation rights. Voepel stated that her son had not had any contact with his father.

Brink got a suspended sentence and pleaded guilty to a domestic battery charge in 1999, almost a year before Aldrich was born. Voepel was the victim in the case, according to court records.

The law and mental health issues of Aldrich’s mother persisted while she was in Texas. A relative who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity described Voepel as “sweet” but also as having a “tumultuous life.”

In 2010, Voepel underwent court-ordered mental health treatment in Riverside County, California that stemmed from those cases, according to court records obtained by CNN.

The records show Voepel wanted to give her then 10-year-old son to Aldrich. A document filed later noted that Voepel said her son had begun living with her and that she planned to seek medical, welfare and food stamp assistance.

According to a police report, she used a light to start a fire in her room at the Baptist Medical Center in San Antonio. According to the police report, Voepel initially denied that she started the fire, but security footage proved that she was the only one in her room.

She was a licensed psychologist who said that she had severe borderline personality disorder and alcohol dependence. She was originally charged with fire damage, but later pleaded no contest to a reduced offense. She was sentenced to five years of community supervision.

The Denver-Colorado Springs, Colo., teen arrested and charged in a ‘happy ending’ gay nightclub shooting

The site derided an apparent attempt by Aldrich’s grandmother to raise money for him to travel to Japan with classmates. A screenshot of a fundraising appeal says “Make a dream come true for a young man who has survived many bad knocks over his young life.” The fundraising goal was not reached, according to the post.

A history of revisions on the page shows that the bullying posts about him were updated several times over a five-month period in 2015. The Washington Post reported on the page, but it is still active.

Later that same year, just before his 16th birthday, the teen legally changed his name from Nicholas F. Brink to Anderson Lee Aldrich. The name change was first reported by The Post.

Aldrich later surrendered to sheriff’s deputies, which was seen in other video footage previously reported by CNN. The sheriff’s office said no explosives were found in the house.

A few seconds of the video shows a young man wearing a helmet and body armor who was challenging law enforcement to break open the house where he had holed up.

It is not immediately clear how the bomb threat case was resolved, but the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the district attorney’s office said no formal charges were pursued in the case. The district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The suspect in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting had charges dropped in a 2021 bomb threat case after family members who were terrorized in the incident refused to cooperate, according to the district attorney and court documents unsealed Thursday.

When a violent man threatened to kill his grandparents and the next mass killer, a prosecutor ruled that the case against Aldrich was “hiding”

In a letter last November to district court Judge Robin Chittum, the relatives of a man who did not have a job gave a description of him as a violent person with $30,000 spent on 3D printers to make guns.

The sheriff’s office said a protective order was in place until July 5 that prevented Aldrich from having firearms.

Allen spoke hours after Chittum unsealed the case, which included allegations that Aldrich threatened to kill the grandparents and to become the “next mass killer” more than a year before the nightclub attack that killed five people.

The case against the suspect’s mother and grandparents was thrown out because they didn’t comply with prosecutors’ efforts to serve them with a subpoena.

The suspect’s mother and grandmother testified that Aldrich was a nice person and didn’t deserve to be jailed, the prosecutor said.

The former district attorney said he faced many cases in which people dodged subpoenas but that the inability to serve the family of Aldrich seemed extraordinary.

Dan May said that if the family of the suspect hid, shame on them. “This is an extreme example of apparent manipulation that has resulted in something horrible.”

Two days later, the AP published some of the documents that were verified with a law enforcement official, after the judge’s order to unseal the documents.

The case was dropped when attempts to serve the family members with subpoenas to testify against Aldrich failed, according to Allen. Both grandparents moved out of state, complicating the subpoena process, Allen said.

Grandmother Pamela Pullen said through an attorney that there was a subpoena in her mailbox, but it was never handed to her personally or served properly, documents show.

Kraus said he had text messages from Aldrich’s mother saying that she and the suspect were “hiding from somebody.” He later found out the family had been dodging subpoenas. Aldrich’s “words were, ‘They got nothing. There’s no evidence,’” Kraus said.

The suspect’s grandmother gave $30,000 to Aldrich so that he would purchase two 3D printers, which he was making guns for, according to documents in the case.

El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder released a statement Thursday saying that there was no need to ask for a red flag order because Aldrich’s weapons had already been seized as part of the arrest and Aldrich couldn’t buy new ones.

The sheriff also rejected the idea that he could have asked for a red flag order after the case was dismissed. The bombing case was too old to argue there was danger in the near future, Elder said, and the evidence was sealed a month after the dismissal and couldn’t be used.

When a case is thrown out, there is no need for records to be kept because defendants are not prosecuted. The process to unseal the documents begins behind closed doors with no docket to follow and an unnamed judge.

Chittum said the “profound” public interest in the case outweighed Aldrich’s privacy rights. The judge said that scrutiny of judicial cases is a part of our system of government.