They are “heroes,” in the words of the police officers in charge of the case and several witnesses. Heroes, still anonymous, who undoubtedly saved the lives of many people on Saturday night in the United States, in Colorado Springs. It was not yet midnight when patrons of an LGBT nightclub saw a man arrive with a semi-automatic weapon. He starts shooting at the crowd. This shooting, let us remember, cost the lives of five people who came to celebrate. Twenty-five others were injured, according to the latest report.
Since then, the American media have gone looking for testimony. Many, if not most, of them salute the bravery of two men who risked their lives to end this shooting by jumping on the shooter. “There were very brave people who beat and punched him, stopping him from doing more damage,” bartender Michael Anderson, who died that night, told AFP. I don’t know who did this. But I would really like to know because I am very grateful to you. They saved my life last night. Afraid of being targeted, Anderson crept into the courtyard where he and a colleague took refuge between a wall and a hut, seeking protection.
The facts of 2001 come to the surface
John Suthers, mayor of Colorado Springs, also revisited the course of events with the New York Times. One of the men grabbed the shooter’s rifle and then struck him before crushing him to the ground, he said. “Everything happened very fast. The individual was fully subdued two minutes after midnight,” the mayor said, adding that everything seemed to suggest that it was “a hate crime” even though police have not yet officially given the motive for the ‘aggression.
VIDEO. Shooting in the United States: at least 5 dead in a LGBT nightclub
The Washington Post tells a similar story. Police were called at 11:57pm and the first officers arrived on the scene three minutes later. Anderson Lee Aldrich, the 22-year-old suspect, had already been subdued. “I saw what I think was probably the shooter lying on the ground, being beaten, kicked and screamed at by two very brave people,” our bartender once again told CNN. . He says today that he hopes one day to know the identities of the two saviors, whom he thanks.
Investigators are now trying to trace the thread of this tragedy. A 21-year-old man with the same name as Anderson Lee Aldrich threatened his mother with a pipe bomb and multiple weapons last year in a town a 30-minute drive from Colorado Springs, the county sheriff’s office reports. of El Paso. According to CNN, which cites two legal sources, it is in fact the same person. The negotiators then managed to get him out of the house where he was staying before being arrested. This case, which is re-emerging today, raises questions on the other side of the Atlantic. One wonders if this tragedy simply could not have been avoided.
“We must not tolerate hate,” President Joe Biden reacted on Sunday, while Colorado Governor Jared Polis, the first openly gay governor elected in the United States, said he was “horrified and devastated.”
