The father of the mass shooting suspect had a rather shocking reaction to the news that his child had been accused of killing five people in a Colorado gay bar.
Nicholas Franklin Brink, who legally changed their name to Anderson Lee Aldrich, stands accused of the brutal attack on 19 November that also left a further 19 injured at Club Q in Colorado Springs.
It has since been revealed Aldrich is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.
Aldrich was only stopped when they were taken down by an army veteran and a drag queen and was subsequently beaten to a pulp.
Aaron Franklin Brink, the father of Aldrich, was under the impression his child was dead from suicide but on Sunday (November 20) night, the news was broken to him that it was Aldrich who had been arrested in connection with the savage attack on the LGBTQ+ bar.
Speaking outside his home in California, Brink - who now works as a pornstar - revealed to CBS 8 that his initial reaction was not over what his child had allegedly done.
Brink said: "They started telling me about the incident, a shooting involving multiple people and then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I said, 'God, is he gay?'"
"I got scared, 'S**t, is he gay?' And he’s not gay, so I said, 'Phew'."
Brink went on to add that being a homosexual is against his religion: "You know Mormons don’t do gay. We don’t do gay," he said. "There’s no gays in the Mormon church. We don’t do gay."
Mormons - also known as the Latter Day Saints - believe in the rule of chastity, which bars sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage.
Despite that religious doctrine, Brink is noted as a MMA fighter turned adult film star, and has appeared in several X-rated films.
The Daily Beast reports that the Mormon Church had confirmed that Aldrich was a member, but had not attended church in an extended period of time.
Brink also told CBS 8 that, until recently, he thought his child was dead.
"I mourned [their] loss. I had gone through a meltdown and thought I had lost my [child]…[Their] mother told me [they] changed [their] name because I was [on the TV show] Intervention and I had been a porno actor," he said.
A family member told the outlet that they are now handling the fallout of Aldrich's alleged actions 'one day at a time'.
"There is nothing really to do, after everything’s said and done," a woman told them, who refused to give her name but identified herself as a relative.
Aldrich made their first court appearance on Wednesday (November 23) and has been held without bail.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677
