The father of the alleged Colorado gay club shooter, Anderson Lee Aldrich, is an ex-con, former MMA fighter-turned-porn-star, who was also into drugs, it has been revealed. Aaron Franklin Brink, 51, was also part of a number of reality TV shows including "Intervention" and "Divorce Court," according to a report.
In fact, Brink's sordid past also led his son Aldrich to change his name, according to the Denver Gazette. Aldrich, 22, is suspected of killing five people and injuring 25 others after he opened fire inside Club Q on Saturday. Aldrich's mother also has a troubled past, it has been revealed, and was previously busted by police.
Father's Dark Past
The gunman's original name is Nicholas Franklin Brink before he changed it to Anderson Lee Aldrich in 2016, according to a petition signed by his biological grandmother and step-grandfather and his mother. It has been revealed that Brink was a major reason behind his son's decision to change his name.
According to the Denver Gazette, Brink started competing in mixed martial arts matches in late 1998, or about a year and a half before the birth of his alleged killer son. However, he left Anderson Aldrich's mother when he was a young child before turning to MMA.
Over the next 10 years, Brink made a career in MMA, recording 21 wins and 18 losses in the cage, including outings with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC), according to a report by MMA Junkie.
He then turned into a porn star at the age of 27 under the name "Dick Delaware," the outlet reported.
"I met this porn producer," Brink told MMA Junkie in 2009. "I was f-king around with some girls at a party, and he noticed I was very gifted. He said, "Man, you're a goddamn pro. If you get a test, I'll put you in a scene."
"So I got into a few scenes. I was making some money."
According to his IMDB biography, Brink made appearances in classic XXX videos such as "White Boys Can Hump" in 2016 and "My MILF Boss 8" and "It's OK to Put It in My Ass" in 2014.
However, while filming the smut, the Huntington Beach, California, native got addicted to crystal meth, and in 2009, he ended up appearing on the reality show "Intervention," where his then-fiancée pleaded with him to stop using.
According to the Gazette and show footage, he made an appearance on TV's "Divorce Court" two years later with his second wife, porn star Vanessa Brink.
Brink embarked on an unconventional career after a turbulent past that included juvenile imprisonment and a year in a federal jail for bringing marijuana into the US from Mexico. According to the MMA Junkie article, a friend pushed him to think about MMA fighting when he was released from prison at the age of 24.
Bad Influence
Aldrich, Brink's son, is very different physically from his biological father, whom the suspect cited as the reason he sought to change his identity in 2016 at the age of 15. According to a petition, the name change was meant "to protect himself and his future from any connections to birth father," Aaron Brink.
Aldrich asked for a name change a few months after he was allegedly made the target of internet bullying. He was likely bullied in high school, according to a website posting from June 2015 that attacked a boy by the name of Nick Brink.
The post made fun of Brink's weight, lack of money, and what it claimed to be an interest in Chinese cartoons while also including images that were similar to those of the shooting suspect.
Brink's name was also used to create a YouTube account that featured the animation "Asian homosexual gets molested."
According to state and federal court records, Brink has a lengthy criminal past, including convictions for violence against the mother of the alleged shooter, Laura Voepel, both before and after the suspect was born.
After being found guilty of a misdemeanor battery in 2002, Aaron F. Brink was issued a protective order that initially forbade him from getting in touch with the suspect or his mother without using a lawyer, but later changed to permit supervised contacts with the youngster.
According to public documents, the father was also given a 2 ½-year prison term for smuggling marijuana and violated his probation by testing positive for illegal steroids while he was on supervised release.
Aldrich's mother also has a troubled past, with three current arrest warrants out for her in California and previous busts including for arson in Texas in 2012.
Aldrich is suspected of killing five people and hurting several others on Saturday at Club Q. On November 19, just before midnight, Aldrich allegedly started shooting inside Colorado Springs' Club Q. He was eventually subdued by drag performer and US Army veteran Richard M. Fierro, along with patron Thomas Jane.
He arrived at the bar, according to the club's owners, with "tremendous firepower"—an AR-15 rifle, six magazines of ammunition, and a handgun. Before the cops arrived, patrons pummeled him to the ground while using the revolver he was carrying.
Xavier Kraus, 23, told Daily Beast that Aldrich frequently went to a shooting range where "rapid fire" was permitted. The neighbor claimed that the suspect took his mother, Laura Voepel, to the shooting range.
Kraus further claimed that Aldrich frequently used the term "f****t" and occasionally used gay slurs when he was angry.
In a separate interview with CBS News, Kraus claimed that Aldrich acknowledged using heroin and claimed to be an opium addict.
