A judge had warned that the Club Q mass shooting suspect posed a potential threat

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A judge dismissed the 2021 kidnapping case against the Colorado gay nightclub shooter even though she had previously raised concerns about the defendant stockpiling weapons and explosives and planning a shootout, court transcripts obtained Friday by The Associated Press reveal.

Relatives, including the grandparents who claimed to have been kidnapped, had also told Judge Robin Chittum in August last year about Anderson Aldrich's struggles with mental illness during a hearing at which the judge said Aldrich needed treatment or "it's going to be so bad," according to the documents.

Yet no mention was made during a hearing this July of the suspect's violent behavior or the status of any mental health treatment.

And Chittum, who had received a letter late last year from relatives of Aldrich's grandparents