Colorado gunman's father says he feared his child was gay

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Colorado gunman's father says he feared his child was gay

The father of the suspected Colorado Springs shooter has provoked a backlash over comments he made over the armed attack on the LGTBQ bar that killed five and wounded 17.

Aaron Brink told the San Diego s CBS 8 that when he received a phone call from his child's public defender, his first reaction was to question why his child was in the club.

I go on to find out it is a gay bar. I said, God, is he gay? I got scared, Shit, is he gay? He was not gay, so I said, and his comments sparked anger online, condemning Brink for relief that his child was only a mass murderer and not a homosexual Brink, a mixed martial arts coach, told CBS 8 he had taught his child to fight, saying he had offered praise for violent behavior very early in life. I told him it works. It is instant and you will get immediate results. The alleged attacker, identified in court papers as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, was ordered to be held without bail in an initial court appearance on Wednesday. The suspect sat slumped over in a chair, showing bruises to their face and neck apparently sustained during a violent apprehension by patrons at the club.

Prosecutors have not yet filed formal charges. Defense attorneys have said the suspect is notbinary and that they are pronouns.

11 people injured by gunshots in the attack remained hospitalized late on Wednesday, officials said. The people who were killed in the attack have been named as Raymond Green Vance, 22; Ashley Paugh, 35; Daniel Aston, 28; Kelly Loving, 40 and Derrick Rump 38.

Brink, who lives in San Diego and is also known by his stage name Dick Delaware, told the station that his family is Mormon and he is a conservative Republican.

"We don't do gay," he added in the interview, saying that despite his anti-gay views, there was no excuse for shooting people in a club.

I'm so sorry, guys., for your loss, Brink said. It is human life with no regard to politics. I am so sorry. My soul goes out to you. In a subsequent interview, Brink said he did not know that Aldrich was non-binary. I was horrified to know that he was gay. I was like, Oh my God. He is at a gay bar. I am not homophobic or anything, but to find something out like that I just didn't know Brink, 48, went on to explain that he had not raised his son: As a child, he was not taken away by me, he said, adding: My ex-wife didn't want my son around me. After seeing the violence Aldrich allegedly unleashed inside Q Nightclub a few days ago, Brink said he wished he had been more involved with his child, whose grandparents petitioned a Texas court to change his name to erase any connections to his birth father.

I failed him. Nicholas or Anderson, I m sorry, Brink later said. I wish that he, you know if I have to fight somebody, I'm going in there with my fists. Fight like a man, then shake hands afterward, and then you are done. Questions about warning signs that may have been missed were raised by Brink. Aldrich was arrested last year after police said he had threatened to blow up his mother's house in El Paso, Texas, where he had been living.

According to a press release from the El Paso county sheriff, Aldrich had threatened his mother with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons and ammunition. Aldrich was charged with menacing and kidnapping about the bomb threat, but the charges were not pursued.

For reasons still unclear, the incident did not trigger Colorado's red flag laws that would have allowed authorities to seize Aldrich's guns.