Blood-stained clothing near the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 20, 2022 (AFP/Jason Connolly)
A 22-year-old man “entered” an LGBTQ nightclub “and immediately started shooting”, killing at least five people, before being subdued by “heroic” patrons, from Saturday night to Sunday in Colorado Springs in the USA.
Eighteen people were injured in the shooting, which occurred just before midnight, police said, saying some of the injured were in critical condition.
The establishment, which bears the name “Club Q”, thanked on Facebook Sunday “the heroic customers who subdued the shooter and put an end to this heinous attack”.
At least two firearms were found at the scene. “I can confirm the suspect used a shotgun,” said Colorado Springs Deputy Police Chief Adrian Vasquez.
“He walked into the box and immediately started shooting,” he said at a news conference.
Authorities identified the suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, who was arrested and taken to hospital.
Mr. Vasquez clarified that “at least two heroic people in the box confronted him and fought with the suspect. They managed to stop him from continuing to kill and hurt.”
– “So terrifying” –
Joshua Thurman, who was in the nightclub, said there were “bodies on the floor. There were shards of glass, broken cups, people crying.” “It was terrifying,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“It was supposed to be our refuge (…) where should we go?”. This Colorado Springs resident was “on the dance floor when he heard the shots” and had managed to take refuge in the locker room.
Coming to ‘Club Q’ for the first time that evening, Aeron Laney, 24, described a small nightclub ‘where everyone was having a good time, smiling and laughing’.
“I can’t understand how anyone could walk in and see people so happy and so comfortable in their community, and want to put an end to it,” she tearfully told AFP.
She and her friend Justin Godwin had left the scene minutes before the shooter appeared. “Maybe he was already there? In the parking lot…he was planning all of this,” the 25-year-old said. “It’s terrifying.”
The wounded were transported to various hospitals in Colorado, a state in the center of the country.
The nightclub also said it was “destroyed by this senseless attack on our community”.
(Left to right) Tyler Johnston, Keenan Mastes-Holmes and Altas Pretzeus near a memorial for the victims of the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 20, 2022 (AFP/Jason Connolly)
Michael Anderson, who worked at the bar, “can’t stop thinking about the images of the evening, the bodies, the blood, the broken glass, the carnage and the rubble, and watching a shelter turn into a war zone.” he told CBS.
“We must not tolerate hatred”, President Joe Biden reacted from Washington, while the governor of Colorado Jared Polis, the first openly gay governor elected in the United States, declared himself “horrified and devastated”.
Club Q had announced an LGBT event on Saturday, a party “with all kinds of gender identities and numbers” to celebrate Transgender Day of Remembrance, celebrated internationally on November 20.
Authorities have not provided any indication of a possible motive for the attack attributed to Anderson Lee Aldrich.
A 21-year-old man with the same name threatened his mother with a pipe bomb and multiple guns last year in a town a 30-minute drive from Colorado Springs, the El. Paso County Sheriff’s Office said. which includes the city.
– Orlando’s tragic precedent –
Michael Travis sits near a memorial to the victims of the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 20, 2022 (AFP/Jason Connolly)
This new drama takes place in a context of resurgence of acts hostile to transgender people, according to statistics from the associations and the FBI.
On June 12, 2016, an American of Afghan origin, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured around fifty in a gay club in Orlando (Florida, southeast).
The killing also illustrates the surge in gun-related mortality in a country where they circulate in large numbers.
With this tragedy, 601 mass shootings have been recorded in the United States since the beginning of 2022, according to the organization Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting, from four killed or injured by bullet – not counting the shooter.
Every attempt to legislate truly binding clashes with the very strong lobbying of the National Rifle Association, which has powerful parliamentary levers.
