(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Thursday, Feb. 23, was the second day of the preliminary hearing for the alleged Club Q shooter. Judge Michael McHenry determined there was enough evidence for this case to move forward.

At the beginning of the hearing, both sides argued if the shooter acted with a biased motivated defense and with probable cause.

District Attorney Michael Allen argued the shooter purposely targeted the one LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs and his actions “scaring the daylights out of anyone in the club.”

To counter, the defense argued the shooter had an unbiased motivation and referenced their behavior that night. The defense said the shooter continually apologized and displayed sad emotions afterward.

Both parties discussed mental competency at the time of the shooting and whether the shooter acted under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Judge McHenry determined there was enough evidence for this case to move forward and held a discussion on setting a date.

The defense stated they needed four months for trial as they are working on another case. McHenry set the arraignment to May 30 at 3 p.m.

Also, in discussion releasing the surveillance video from that night inside of Club Q, both parties requested this video not be released to the public out of fairness and dignity for the victims. Those in attendance supporting Club Q nodding in agreement to not release this footage.

The hearing on the surveillance video set to March 31 at 3 p.m. Judge McHenry also said both attorneys on this date can go over any pending issues.

Following the hearing, a press conference was held by the 4th Judicial District Court.

“At that arraignment, we expected the defendant to formally enter a plea as is typical in most homicide cases, we anticipate that plea to be a not guilty plea,” Allen said. “That is fairly standard practice.”

Allen shared that he believes they have a strong case for bias motivation charges and explained how the statute was amended two years ago.

“The statute for bias motivated crimes in Colorado was amended just two years ago,” Allen said. “It used to be that we had to prove that somebody acted specifically for those reasons, but the wording was changed that we only have to prove that somebody acted either wholly or in part by their bias towards a particular group. That change in the statute allowed us to charge a lot of these offenses.”

Specifically, the shooter is now facing a total of 323 charges, according to the 4th Judicial DA’s Office.

“It’s the biggest number of charges I’ve ever filed in a particular case,” Allen said.

Earlier Thursday morning, Judge McHenry found probable cause to support all charges in this case.

“Obviously, the vast majority of those charges are victim centered charges,” Allen said. “So for each particular victim, they’re grouped by charges for that particular victim and then beyond that, there are crimes of violence, charges that we also add on to a case like this and what those crime of violence charges do just require a sentence in prison and that’s really what the significance of those charges is.”

Allen commented on the support he witnessed in the courtroom from victims and supporters of Club Q.

“I can tell you that just based on the sheer number of people that were present for both days yesterday and today indicates a very strong solidarity with what we’re doing here in the prosecution effort,” Allen said. “The fact that they were so interested in being in court, at least a great number of them, and then sticking around and meeting with us after the fact goes towards that solidarity.”