The shooter who killed five people and wounded more than 30 others at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub pleaded guilty to 5 counts of murder, 46 counts attempted murder, and two counts bias motivated crime on Monday.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, who is now 23, will now serve life in prison for the Club Q shooting as part of a deal with prosecutors. Aldrich faced more than 300 charges, including for murder and hate crimes, for the mass shooting that took place during a drag show the night before Transgender Day of Remembrance in November 2022.

According to the criminal complaint, Aldrich entered Club Q wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with an AR-style rifle and handgun before firing into the crowd, killing Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump.

The attack was eventually interrupted when two patrons, Thomas James, a Navy sailor, and Richard Fierro, an Army veteran, disarmed Aldrich and began beating the shooter with the firearm. Other shooting survivors joined James and Fierro in stopping the shooter.

In an interview with The New York Times, Fierro said police arrived at the scene, saw him covered in blood with the handgun, and handcuffed him, not knowing whether he was a threat. He was eventually freed to see his family.

Aldrich, who according to their attorney uses they/them pronouns, was initially charged in December with 305 counts including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault and bias-motivated crimes causing bodily injury. That number increased to 317 in January.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a senior law enforcement source said the Department of Justice was still considering whether to file federal hate crime charges in the case. It’s unclear whether Monday’s guilty plea will influence that decision.

In a phone call with the AP, Aldrich expressed a desire to take responsibility for what happened. But survivors questioned whether their newly expressed remorse was a ploy to avoid the federal death penalty, the AP reported.

Xavier Kraus, a former friend and neighbor of Aldrich’s, told NBC News that the shooter had not used they/them pronouns in the past, adding that Aldrich had made racist or homophobic statements and created an online forum to express them.

In a bizarre, rambling interview with CBS 8 San Diego, Aldrich’s father, Aaron Brink, admitted that he didn’t even know his child was still living when he heard the news of the shooting. He then questioned Aldrich’s sexuality.

“I was scared. I was like ‘Oh my god, shit, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay,” Brink told the outlet.

According to a press release by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Aldrich was also arrested in 2021, a year before the Club Q shooting, after their mother had reported that Aldrich threatened her with a homemade bomb and multiple weapons.

Video footage of the 2021 arrest obtained by the Denver Gazette shows an individual believed to be Aldrich wearing body armor and carrying a rifle inside the home.

“If they breach, I’ma fucking blow it to holy hell,” the individual can be heard saying about law enforcement. “Go ahead and come on in, boys. Let’s fucking see it.”