COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The 22-year-old accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs in November ran a neo-Nazi website and used gay and racial slurs while gaming online, a police detective testified Wednesday.

Anderson Lee Aldrich used racial slurs while gaming, posted a rifle scope on a gay pride parade and used another slur when referring to someone who was gay, Detective Rebecca Joines testified on the first day of a three-day trial to determine if there’s enough evidence to warrant hate crime charges against Aldrich.

Questions remain about how the suspect got the guns, but experts say that doesn’t have to be discussed in order to persuade the judge to rule that there’s enough evidence for a trial.

Questions were raised early on about whether authorities should have sought a red flag order to stop Aldrich from buying guns after Aldrich was arrested in 2021, when they threatened their grandparents and vowed to become the “next mass killer,” according to law enforcement documents.

Authorities said two guns seized from Aldrich in that case — a ghost gun pistol and an MM 15 rifle — weren’t returned. That case was dropped, in part because prosecutors couldn’t track down Aldrich’s grandparents and mother to testify, so Aldrich had no legal restrictions on buying guns.

Defense attorneys also brought up Aldrich’s mental health for the first time at the hearing, showing photographs of pill bottles for drugs that Aldrich had been prescribed to treat mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and PTSD. But the defense didn’t say if Aldrich had been formally diagnosed with any of those mental illnesses.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A Navy sailor grabbed the barrel of a gunman’s rifle and an Army veteran rushed in to help as they ended the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs in November, a police detective testified Wednesday.

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