Watch: Colorado Springs Shooting Suspect's Dad Relieved They aren't Gay: 'We Don't Do Gay'
When Aaron Franklin Brink, the father of accused Colorado Springs shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich, was told of the mass-killing in a gay bar, he had a most visceral response.
"They started telling me about the incident, a shooting involving multiple people," Brink said Tuesday in an interview outside his San Diego home with CBS 8. "And then I go on to find out it's a gay bar. I said, 'God, is he gay?' I got scared, 'Shit, is he gay?' And he's not gay, so I said, 'Phhhewww...'"
Brink is MMA-fighter-turned-porn-actor who has appeared in such films as "I Wanna Get Titty Fucked" and "Latina Slut Academy." He is also a Mormon, telling CBS 8: "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."
The Mormon Church has confirmed to The Daily Beast that Aldrich was a member but had not been active in some time.
The Daily Beast adds that in a court filing late Tuesday, lawyers for Aldrich, who in 2016 changed their name from Nicholas Franklin Brink to escape their father's sordid past, said Aldrich is non-binary, adding "they use they/them pronouns."
"However, booking records list Aldrich's gender as male. Additionally, in text messages from the day of the shooting, which were shown to The Daily Beast by a source close to Aldrich, Aldrich's mother referred to her son as 'he' and 'him,'" the outlet adds.
The Daily Beast reached out to Brink for comment, and spoke to someone at Brink's current wife's number who declined to identify herself. "We're just taking it one day at a time," she told The Daily Beast. "There is nothing really to do, after everything's said and done."
"Aldrich allegedly opened fire at Club Q shortly before midnight on Nov. 19 before being subdued by two bystanders. Aldrich was initially hospitalized with unspecified injuries but was transferred to the El Paso County jail on Tuesday, according to authorities."
Brink apologized in the CBS 8 interview for his son's behavior, saying there's "no excuse for going and killing people. If you're killing people, there's something wrong. It's not the answer."
The Daily Beast adds that the same time, Brink, a recovering methamphetamine user who once appeared on the reality show "Intervention," said he "praised [Aldrich] for violent behavior really early. I told him it works. It is instant and you'll get immediate results."
Aldrich had legally changed their name from Nicholas Brink a month before their 16th birthday, Texas court documents show. "Minor wishes to protect himself + his future from his birth father + his criminal history. Father has had no contact with minor for several years."
The Washington Post reports that until age 15, they were known as Nicholas Brink, living in San Antonio, public records show. Their parents separated when they was a toddler, and when they was 12, their mother, Laura Voepel, was arrested for suspected arson, according to court documents. She was later found guilty of a lesser offense in connection with the same incident.
At the time (2016) of the name change, his ex-wife Voepel called him and said their son had changed their name to Anderson Lee Aldrich, then died by suicide.
"I thought he was dead," Brink said. "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' and I had been a porno actor."
But six months ago, his son reached out to Brink. The two hadn't spoken in six years, but the conversation quickly devolved into a sparring match, according to Brink.
"He's pissed off," Brink, who described himself in the interview as a conservative Republican, told CBS 8. "He's pissed off at me. He wants to poke at the old man."
Aldrich made their first court appearance Wednesday afternoon. They was ordered held without bail. They was arrested last year after cops said they threatened to blow up Voepel's Colorado Springs house. The charges were dropped. Without charges, the Colorado red flag laws, which would have allowed police to seize Aldrich's guns, could not not triggered. The guns used in the attack were purchased legally, according to reports.
The Daily Beast adds that Brink said he still loves Aldrich in light of the accusations, and offered an apology to the victims.
"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."