Provided to The Daily Beast
The 22-year-old gunman accused of killing five and wounding 17 others at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ bar changed his name as a teenager to remove all links to his estranged dad, who by then appeared to be working as a porn actor.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, who is preliminarily charged with 10 criminal counts including first-degree murder, was born Nicholas Franklin Brink, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Beast. His biological father, Aaron Franklin Brink, left when Nicholas was a baby, according to a relative who asked not to be named publicly.
“Minor wishes to protect himself + his future from his birth father + his criminal history,” states a notarized affidavit filed in a Texas court almost exactly a month before Aldrich, still Nicholas Brink, turned 16. “Father has had no contact with minor for several years.”