to Aldrich, Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen has said. But the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office did not use the state’s red flag law to seize any of Aldrich’s other guns or to prevent the 23-year-old from legally buying or possessing additional guns.
A spokeswoman with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment Monday. After the Club Q attack, then-Sheriff Bill Elder and Allen both defended their offices’ handling of Aldrich’s prior criminal case, in which all charges were eventually dropped. While the 2021 case was pending, Aldrich was under a mandatory protection order that prevented Aldrich from legally buying guns, and the pending felony case on its own also prevented Aldrich from legally buying guns. Those restrictions ended when the criminal case was dismissed.
Authorities nevertheless decided not to return Aldrich’s two seized guns, instead opting to keep the guns and other evidence in the case until the entirety of the statute of limitations expired.