Who is Randy Voepel, the East County politician whose grandson is accused of LGBTQ club killings?

This wasn’t the primary taking pictures to hit dwelling for Randy Voepel.

In March 2001, an adolescent opened fire in Santee’s Santana Excessive Faculty, killing two and wounding greater than a dozen. Voepel, a Vietnam veteran, had just lately been elected mayor of the East County metropolis.

“My third tour in Vietnam was the Santana Excessive Faculty taking pictures,” he said years later at a memorial service. “All we might do now could be pray to God and keep in mind our youngsters.”

Voepel is a member of the state Meeting, representing Southern California’s 71st district, and this week his grandson was accused of opening fireplace inside an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was arrested after 5 individuals had been killed and one other 17 shot. He now faces murder and hate crime charges.

A lot stays unknown. There is no such thing as a recognized hyperlink between the alleged shooter and his kin’ beliefs, neither is it clear how properly he is aware of his grandfather. A legislative aide stated Voepel hadn’t talked to his grandson in years.

No person answered the door at Voepel’s Santee dwelling Monday, and the lawmaker has not responded to requests for remark.

On the similar time, the taking pictures has drawn renewed consideration to Voepel’s document opposing pro-LGBTQ proposals and his historical past of incendiary feedback on a spread of subjects — together with his obvious reward of the lethal Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, which he likened to the American Revolution in feedback to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

In interviews, Santee residents and former colleagues alternatively described Voepel as a person dedicated to his neighborhood and a voice for the arduous proper.

Some observers related this weekend’s bloodshed to broader assaults on LGBTQ individuals’s rights across the nation.

“It’s this poisonous mixture of hateful rhetoric and lies about LGBTQ individuals, together with opposition to common sense gun laws,” stated Sam Garrett, a spokesperson for Equality California, a number one LGBTQ rights advocacy group. Some right-wing politicians have tacitly inspired violence by “demonizing” members of the group, he stated.

Voepel seems to have been much less outspoken on homosexual rights than different subjects, and Garrett was not conscious of any inflammatorycomments from the lawmaker on this problem.

Voepel has voted towards LGBTQ laws.

He just lately opposed payments to let transgender Californians replace the names and genders listed on their marriage licenses and children’s birth certificates and make it simpler for LGBTQ individuals to take leave from work to care for loved ones.

Equality California has given him grades of fifty out of 100 in current legislative scorecards, akin to what different Republicans within the Legislature acquired.

A photograph of Voepel additionally seems on the homepage of the Judeo-Christian Caucus, a corporation that lobbies against what it calls “LGBT indoctrination.”

Voepel has equally opposed gun control measures, incomes him an A score from the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation.

He voted no on laws that makes it simpler to sue firearm manufacturers, a ban on advertising guns to minors and restrictions on parts used in “ghost guns” that lack serial numbers.

All of these payments turned regulation.

Folks attend a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Membership Q taking pictures on the Hillcrest Pleasure Flag in Hillcrest on Monday, Nov. 21, 2022.

(Ok.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A Missouri native, Voepel joined the U.S. Navy throughout the Vietnam Conflict. He was as soon as stationed in San Diego and served on the united statesS. Buchanan, according to military records first obtained by NBC San Diego. He was additionally awarded the Fight Motion Ribbon, records show.

His service led to post-traumatic stress dysfunction, he told the Los Angeles Times.

“We endure for the remainder of our lives,” he stated. “I take advantage of humor and hubris to make up for it.”

Voepel and his spouse Susan raised two kids in Santee, in line with his official biography.

He was elected to the Santee Metropolis Council in 1996, pulling in 1000’s extra votes than the subsequent challenger, municipal records show. Whereas his margin of victory was nearer 4 years later in his first mayoral marketing campaign, Voepel went on to dominate native politics for greater than a decade.

“He was all the time searching for the most effective intentions of the town,” Jack Dale, a former mayor who overlapped with Voepel on the council, stated Monday in a cellphone interview. “I simply really feel terrible for him.”

Town has significantly more registered Republicans than Democrats — though even the GOP generally felt too “liberal” for Voepel, as he informed the Union-Tribune in 2010.

“I’ve a really hard-nosed viewpoint, a really conservative viewpoint,” he once said to a reporter with Voice of San Diego. “Some individuals say it’s very un-Christian, however I’m a Christian.”

In the identical 2007 interview, he opposed investing in homeless outreach (“The extra homeless applications we fund in Southern California, the extra individuals come right here and be homeless”) and stated local weather change was good as a result of it will enhance temperatures in nations south of the USA, and “our enemies are on the Equator.”

He doubled down on that sentiment years later. “Many of the Muslim nations are within the sizzling areas of the world,” he said in a 2016 interview with the Occasions.

Santee has long been accused of harboring racists, though present leaders say that’s an undeserved or outdated fame. Voepel additionally pushed again towards these allegations.

“Each time I’ve talked to anybody about Santee, I’ve informed them we’re turning into a really cosmopolitan metropolis,” he said.

Whereas mayor, he generally clashed with residents.

Stephen Houlahan successfully ran for a council seat in 2016, on the finish of Voepel’s tenure, after preventing with leaders over a proposed energy plant in Mission Trails Regional Park. On Monday, Houlahan criticized Voepel’s management and stated the town had been harm by the previous mayor’s “extremist views.”

Voepel has weighed in on many hot-button points.

The American Lung Affiliation repeatedly gave Santee an “F” for not growing limits on public smoking, however Voepel reportedly dismissed these issues by saying the grade stood for “Freedom.”

Extra just lately, he called the Jan. 6 rebellion on the U.S. Capitol a “Lexington and Harmony” second that represented the “first photographs fired towards tyranny.” He later tweeted that he condemned violence and lawlessness.

Throughout his tenure as mayor, Santee additionally constructed sturdy ties with the navy. Town “adopted” nearby Marine units and hosted events for troops, a partnership that continues.

No person challenged Voepel for Santee’s high job in 2004 and he didn’t step down as mayor till 2016 when he was elected to the Meeting.

He misplaced his most recent re-election bid to a different Republican incumbent after redistricting drew them into the same seat.

One in every of Voepel’s neighbors, a Colorado native who requested his identify not be used, stated he was deeply affected by the taking pictures as a result of a relative is an LGBTQ liaison with the Denver Sheriff’s Division.

“That a lot hate,” he stated, “it feels private to me.”

The Los Angeles Occasions contributed to this report.