Gunman kills 5 at a gay club and is overpowered by guests

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A 22-year-old gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub, killing five people and injuring 25 before being overpowered by “heroic” patrons and arrested by police who arrived minutes, authorities said on Sunday.

The suspect in Saturday night’s shooting at Club Q used an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon, a police officer said. A handgun and extra ammunition magazines were also seized, according to the officer, who was unable to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The attack ended when a patron took a pistol from the suspect and hit him with it, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told The Associated Press. The person who hit the gunman had him pinned down when police arrived, Suthers said.

“If that person hadn’t intervened, this could have been far more tragic,” Suthers said.

On its Facebook page, the club spoke of a “hate attack”. Investigators are still determining a motive and whether it should be prosecuted as a hate crime, said El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen. The charges against the suspect will likely include first-degree murder, he said.

Police identified the suspected shooter as Anderson Lee Aldrich, who was in custody and being treated for injuries.

Aldrich was arrested in 2021 after his mother reported he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons, authorities said. They declined to elaborate on this arrest. No explosives were found, authorities said at the time, and The Gazette in Colorado Springs reported that prosecutors did not press charges and the records were sealed.

Of the 25 injured, at least seven were in critical condition, authorities said. Some were injured trying to escape, and it’s unclear if all the victims were shot, a police spokesman said.

Suthers said there was “reason for hope” all hospital patients would recover.

The shooting brings back memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people. Colorado has seen several mass killings, including at Columbine High School in 1999, at a movie theater in suburban Denver in 2012, and at a convenience store in Boulder last year.

It was the sixth mass killing this month and happened in a year as the nation was rocked by the death of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Authorities were called to Club Q at 11:57pm on Saturday with a report of a shooting and the first officer arrived at midnight.

Joshua Thurman said he was at the club with about two dozen other people dancing when the shooting started. He initially thought it was part of the music until he heard another gunshot and said he saw the flash of a gun muzzle.

Thurman, 34, said he ran with another person to a dressing room where someone was already hiding. They locked the door, turned off the light and got on the ground, but could hear the violence unfolding, including the gunman’s punches, he added.

“I could have lost my life – for what? What was the purpose?” he said as tears rolled down his cheeks. “We just had fun. We weren’t out there to harm anyone. We were in our space, our community, our home, enjoying ourselves like everyone else.”

Investigators were also looking into whether anyone helped Aldrich before the attack, Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said. He said well wishers who intervened during the attack were “heroic” and owed gratitude for preventing further deaths.

Club Q is a gay and lesbian nightclub that offers a drag show on Saturdays, according to its website. Club Q’s Facebook page said the planned entertainment included a “punk and alternative show” ahead of a birthday dance party with an all-ages drag brunch on Sunday.

Suthers noted the club had been operating for 21 years and had not reported any threats prior to Saturday’s attack.

Drag events have recently become a focus of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and protests, as opponents, including politicians, have suggested excluding children from them, falsely claiming they are used to “grooming” children.

Attorney General Merrick Garland was notified of the shooting and the FBI assisted the police in the investigation.

In order to support a hate crime charge against Aldrich, prosecutors would need to show that he was motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. So far, the suspect has been uncooperative during interviews with investigators and has not yet provided them with clear insight into the motivation for the attack, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

President Joe Biden said that while the motive for the shootings is not yet clear, “we know that the LGBTQI+ community has faced horrendous hate violence in recent years.”

“Places that should be safe places of acceptance and celebration should never become places of terror and violence,” he said. “We cannot and must not tolerate hate.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who became the first openly gay man to be elected governor in the United States in 2018, called the shooting “disgusting.”

“My heart breaks for the family and friends of those lost, injured and traumatized,” Polis said. “Colorado stands with our LGTBQ community and everyone affected by this tragedy as we mourn.”

On Sunday, a makeshift memorial was erected near the club with flowers, a stuffed animal and candles, and a sign that reads “Love over hate” next to a rainbow-colored heart.

Seth Stang bought flowers for the memorial after being told two of the dead were his friends. The 34-year-old transgender man said it was like “a bucket of hot water being dumped on you”. … I’m just sick of not having places where we can safely exist.”

Ryan Johnson, who lives near the club and was there last month, said it’s one of only two nightclubs serving the LGBTQ community in conservative Colorado Springs. “It’s kind of a focal point for pride,” the 26-year-old said of the club, which is hidden behind other businesses including a bowling alley and sandwich shop.

Colorado Springs, a city of about 480,000 located 70 miles south of Denver, is home to the US Air Force Academy, the US Olympic Training Center, as well as Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical Christian ministry campaigning against LGBTQ rights. The group condemned the shooting, saying it “shows the evil and malice in the human heart”.

In November 2015, three people were killed and eight injured at a Planned Parenthood clinic in the city when authorities said a gunman targeted the clinic for performing abortions.

“Club Q is devastated by the senseless attack on our community,” the club posted on Facebook. “Thank you to the quick responses of heroic customers who overwhelmed the shooter and ended this hate attack.”

The CEO of a national LGBTQ rights organization, Lambda Legal’s Kevin Jennings, advocated tougher gun restrictions.

“America’s toxic mix of bigotry and absurdly easy access to firearms means such events are all too common, and LGBTQ+ people, BIPOC communities, the Jewish community and other vulnerable populations continue to pay the price for our political leadership’s failure to act,” he said said in a statement.

The shooting took place during Transgender Awareness Week and right at the start of Sunday’s International Transgender Remembrance Day, when events are held around the world to mourn transgender people and remember transgender people lost to violence.

In June, 31 members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and charged with conspiring to riot at a Pride event. Experts warned that extremist groups could take anti-gay rhetoric as a call to action.

Last month, a fundamentalist Idaho pastor told his small Boise congregation that gay, lesbian and transgender people should be executed by the government, echoing similar sermons by a Texas fundamentalist pastor.

As of November 19, there have been 523 mass murders and 2,727 deaths in the United States, according to The Associated Press/USA Today mass murder database since 2006.

Associated Press reporters Colleen Slevin in Denver, Michael Balsamo in Washington, Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Jeff McMillan in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana contributed.