This man hid during the shooting at the Club Q gay club
Tributes keep coming from people who managed to subdue a gunman and prevent him from killing other gay nightclub-goers in the US state of Colorado.
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said someone grabbed the gun from the assailant as the assailant was shooting at patrons of the Club Q gay club on Saturday night.
The mayor added that another person from the club’s club held the attacker on the ground until police arrived at the scene.
But before his arrest, the attacker had already killed five people and injured 25 others.
Police named the suspect as Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, and he is now in custody.
The mayor of Colorado Springs praised the club’s objection to the armed assailant, describing it as an “incredible act of heroism.”
The mayor told CNN that police arrived at the site of the attack within three minutes of the 11:57 p.m. tip — a surprisingly quick response.
“Police were able to put an end to the incident within two minutes of their arrival. Much thanks to the heroic intervention of one or perhaps two people on the scene, subduing the armed assailant…and apparently seizing a gun he had with him and aiming at him,” added Sathers, to limit his movements.
“Without this heroic intervention, the mayor underlined, the scene would have gotten worse”.
The praise also came from the governor of Colorado, as well as from the owner of the club (Club Q), who confirmed that “dozens and dozens of lives” were saved.
Hundreds of mourners gathered for a vigil Sunday night in Colorado Springs
Police are still trying to count the exact number of injured, as some have gone to hospital for treatment.
An investigation is underway to determine whether the attack was a hate crime and whether more than one person is involved.
Questions have been raised about the suspect, who appears to have been the subject of police suspicions in the 2021 bomb threat lawsuits.
According to a police report at the time, the suspect’s mother called 911 saying she was “threatening her with a homemade bomb, more guns and ammunition.”
“Why does this have to happen?”
In a statement on its Facebook page, Club Q said it was “devastated by the brutal attack on our community”.
The club was having a dance party at the time of the attack and planned to host a show on Sunday night to mark the Day of Transgender Persons Killed Because of Their Identity – 20 November.
Joshua Thurman, 34, was at Club Q at the time of the attack.
Thurman told the Colorado Sun that at first he thought the gunshots were part of the party music, but he soon had to hide in a locker room inside the club.
“When I came out of my hiding place, there were bodies all over the floor, shards of glass, broken glass and people screaming,” Thurman says.
“There was nothing stopping this man from coming to us and killing us. Why would that happen? Why? Why would people lose their lives?” Thurman asks.
Thurman resides in a residence near Club Q, which is a major part of that area’s gay community.
Thurman thinks he knows one of the victims of the attack.
US President Joe Biden said Americans “cannot and should not tolerate hate.”
In a White House statement, Biden added, “Places that are supposed to be safe arenas for accepting the other and celebrating should never turn into arenas for terror and violence. But it’s happened too often, too much.”
In 2016, 49 people were killed in a shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. At the time, that attack was the deadliest of its kind in US history.
