5 people died in the Colorado club shooting last year. Now the shooter has been sentenced.

It was just before midnight when Anderson Lee Aldrich entered an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado, in the US.

The then 22-year-old was wearing body armour when he began open firing at partygoers and staff at Club Q on November 19 last year. 

The first 911 call came at 11.56pm, with officers dispatched to the scene a minute later.

Inside the club, screams, shots and the sound of breaking glass could be heard amongst the loud music. 

Club regular Joshua Thurman was on the dance floor when he heard the gunshots thinking "it was the music". 

"I turned around and saw not the gun... but the light coming out of the gun," he told reporters. 

Thurman quickly ran to the club's dressing room with another customer before they called the police.

"As we’re on the phone telling the police to hurry, we’re hearing more shots, people yelling, people screaming."

Behind the bar, Michael Anderson was mixing drinks when he saw "the outline of a man wearing a rifle at the entrance of the club".

"Glass began to spew everywhere all around me," he later told CNN. 

"It hit me this was actually happening, in real life, to me and my friends... I feared I was not going to make it out of that club alive. I have never prayed so sincerely and quickly in my life as I did in that moment."

Eventually, Navy Officer Thomas James confronted the shooter inside the club, grabbing the barrel of his rifle. 

"I simply wanted to save the family I found," he later said in a statement, as per CNN.  

That's when decorated army veteran Richard Fierro, who was at the club celebrating a birthday with his wife, daughter and her friends, rushed over and helped subdue the shooter until police arrived.

"My husband took the gunman down," Fierro's wife Jessica told reporters after the shooting.

"My husband knocked the guns out of his hands and took the pistol and literally started hitting the guy with it."

Unfortunately, Fierro's daughter's boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, was one of the five people who lost their lives that night. 

28-year-old Daniel Aston, 40-year-old Kelly Loving, 38-year-old Derrick Rump and 34-year-old Ashley Paughn were among the others. Another dozen were also wounded. 

"There are five people I could not help, one of which was family to me," Fierro said during a press conference.

"I feel no joy. That guy is still alive... and my family is not."

Image: Ross Taylor for The Washington Post/Getty.

Aldrich, who was already known to law enforcement, was later charged with 323 criminal counts. 

Now, under a year since the shooting, Aldrich has been sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of parole this week. 

The now 23-year-old pleaded guilty on Monday (US time) to five first-degree murder counts and 46 attempted murder counts, as part of an agreement reached with prosecutors that avoids what could have been a lengthy trial.

Aldrich also pleaded no contest to two counts of bias-motivated crimes.

During the sentencing hearing immediately following the plea, family members of the victims and survivors of the shooting spoke tearfully about their loved ones and expressed fury at Aldrich for the attack.

"This thing sitting in this courtroom is not a human, it is a monster," said Raymond Green Vance's girlfriend Kassandra Fierro. 

"I will never get the chance to marry the love of my life... I will never get to start a family with Raymond. I will never get to see, hear or feel Raymond ever again."

Wyatt Kent, whose partner Daniel Aston, was killed in the shooting said he chose to forgive the shooter. 

"I forgive this individual, as they are a symbol of a broken system, of hate and vitriol pushed against us as a community," he said. 

"What brings joy to me is that this hurt individual will never be able to see the joy and the light that has been wrought into our community as an outcome."

Colorado no longer has a death-penalty statute. However, Aldrich could face a death sentence in federal court if prosecutors decide to bring charges under the US code, which still has capital punishment on its books for certain crimes.

- With AAP. 

Feature Image: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/Ross Taylor for The Washington Post/Getty.