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MMA-fighter-turned porn actor Aaron Franklin Brink said he was relieved to hear his son is ‘not gay’ after finding out that the 22-year-old son had been accused of slaughtering five people and injuring 18 others in a mass shooting at a gay club.
A defense attorney had called Brink, who lives in Southern California, to tell him that Anderson Lee Aldrich was under arrest for the massacre at Club Q.
‘They started telling me about the incident, a shooting involving multiple people,’ Brink told CBS 8.
‘And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I said, ‘God, is he gay?’ I got scared, ‘Sh*t, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, ‘Phhhewww’.’
Aldrich’s father went on to say that being gay did not align with their religious values.
‘You know Mormons don’t do gay. We don’t do gay. There’s no gays in the Mormon church. We don’t do gay.’
Aaron Franklin Brink expressed relief when he realized his son is ‘not gay’ when he first heard the 22-year-old ‘massacred five people and injured 18 at a gay club’
A defense attorney had called Brink, who lives in Southern California, to tell him that Anderson Lee Aldrich (pictured) was under arrest for the massacre at Club Q
The Mormon Church has confirmed that while Aldrich was a member, he has not been active in some time, The Daily Beast reported.
In court documents filed on Tuesday, lawyers for Aldrich, who changed his name from Nicholas Franklin Brink in 2016 to escape his father’s past, said Aldrich identifies as non-binary.
‘They use, they/them pronouns,’ the court filings read.
Text messages shown to the Daily Beast by a source close to Aldrich show their mother referring to her son as ‘he and him.’
A person who claimed to be a relative, but had answered a phone number listed to Brink’s wife, told the outlet they were ‘taking it one day at a time.’
‘There is nothing really to do, after everything’s said and done,’ she said.
Aldirch allegedly opened fire at Club Q shortly before midnight on November 19 before he was subdued by two bystanders.
Aldrich was initially hospitalized with unspecific injuries but was transferred to the El Paso County Jail on Tuesday, according to authorities.
Relatives of Aldrich who wished to remain nameless told The Daily Beast that they were ‘totally disgusted.’
Aldrich has gone through a name change and identifies as non-binary, using they/them pronouns
Brink has a sordid past, including mixed martial arts, drugs, reality TV and porn, which led the 22-year-old to change their name
Brink apologized to the victims of the club shooting expressing that he had ‘let his son down’ and said that he had believed he was dead, until a recent call which became heated
‘I don’t want anything to do with that part of the family,’ the relative said.
‘They’ve always had issues, a lot of problems. I’m totally disgusted by that side of the family right now.’
In Brink’s interview with CBS 8 he apologized for his son’s alleged actions and said that there was ‘no excuse for going and killing people.’
‘If you’re killing people, there’s something wrong, it’s not the answer,’ he said.
At the same time, Brink, who is a recovering methamphetamine user, ‘praised his son’s violent behavior.’
‘I told him it works, it is instant and you’ll get immediate results,’ he said.
Brink told the broadcaster that he didn’t know that his son was still alive.
He claims that Aldrich’s mother, Laura Voepel, had called him in 2016 to say that their son had changed their name, then died by suicide.
‘I thought he was dead,’ said Brink.
‘I mourned his loss. I had gone through a meltdown and thought I had lost my son.
‘His mother told me he changed his name because I was in Intervention [a reality tv show] and had been a porno actor.’
Aldrich, 22, has been ordered to be held in jail without bail in a hearing on Wednesday
Aldrich also appeared battered and bruised at court, a day after they were released from the hospital following his injuries
Investigators at the scene of the Club Q nightclub, which was hosting a drag show when they said Aldrich walked in and opened fire
People held a vigil at a makeshift memorial near the Club Q nightclub on Sunday night after the horror shooting
The shooting is now being investigated as a hate crime, leaving members of local LGBTQ community devastated
Brink found out that his son was in fact alive six months ago when Aldrich called him out of the blue.
The two had not spoken in six years but the conversation quickly turned into an argument, Brink said.
‘He’s pissed off,’ Brink, who described himself in the interview as a conservative Republican.
‘He’s pissed off at me. He wants to poke at the old man.’
The Club Q shooting isn’t the first time Aldrich had been linked to violent behavior.
Last year, Aldrich was arrested after police said that he threatened to blow up the Colorado Springs house where his mother had been living.
The charges were later dropped.
This meant that Colorado’s red flag laws, which would have allowed authorities to seize Aldrich’s guns were not triggered.
Instead its believed that the rifle used at the Club Q shooting was bought legally, according to Good Morning America.
Brink, who did federal prison time in the late 1990s for marijuana importation, said that he still loves his son despite the accusations.
‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ he told CBS 8.
‘Life is so fragile and it’s valuable. Those people’s lives were valuable. You know, they’re valuable.
‘They’re good people, probably. It’s not something you kill somebody over. I’m sorry I let my son down.’
Aldrich made his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon and was held without bail.
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