(Photo Credits: kat wilcox from Pexels)
According to police, at least 5 people have been killed and 18 injured in a mass shooting at a gay club on Saturday in Colorado Springs. They said they received a number of 911 calls about the shooting around 11:56 and 57 seconds, just a few minutes before midnight, and the initial officers were dispatched at 11:57 p.m.
Authorities arrived in the area at 12 a.m. and the suspect—whom police identified as 22-year-old Anderson Aldrich—was detained and subsequently taken into custody at 12:02 a.m.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said, “At least two heroic people inside the club confronted and fought with the suspect and were able to stop the suspect from continuing to kill and harm others. We owe them a great debt of thanks.”
“They did locate one individual who we believe to be the suspect inside,” said Lt. Pamela Castro, Colorado Springs police spokesperson. “At this point in time, the suspect is being treated, but is in custody.”
The police added that multiple victims were taken to hospitals by ambulance and police cruisers but there were also those who drove themselves to the hospital. They reiterated that the number of victims could change as the ongoing investigation, which the authorities describe as very early and complex, continues.
Further, Castro said in a recently concluded press conference that the authorities conducted, “The club is a safe haven of our members of the community so we are deeply shocked and saddened that this occurred.”
In the same press conference, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez expressed his condolences to the family of the bereaved, saying that they stand with the victims during this tragedy. He said, in part:
We are working tirelessly to ensure that justice for the victims in this senseless and evil shooting is given. Club Q is a safe haven for our LGBTQ citizens. Every citizen has the right to feel safe and secure in our city, to go about our beautiful city without fear of being harmed or treated poorly. I’m so terribly saddened and heartbroken.
Watch said conference below:
Meanwhile, Club Q, where the shooting happened, released a statement through their social media account. It reads:
Club Q is devastated by the senseless attack on our community.
Our prayers and thoughts are with all the victims and their families and friends.
We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.
The incident is reminiscent of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016, that left 49 dead and over 50 others wounded.
This is not Colorado’s first deadly mass shooting. On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School that left 15 dead and 24 injured. There was also the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting that occurred inside a Century 16 movie theater on July 20, 2012, during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises that left 12 people dead and 58 injured.
We, the Adam4Adam community, are thinking of the victims, friends, the LGBTQ community, and their families during this difficult and sorrowful time. Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you and we wish all of you strength, love, and comfort.
To all: stay safe and healthy, wherever you are in the world.
This is the product right wing thinking.
Right on time as I figured… there are right wing lovers among us. Because who you sleep with.
Do you feel sub-genius now that we have found out the shooter was non-binary and preferred they/them pronoums?
It still happens – regardless of time or place.
We seem to be targeted and eliminated – at whim?
Gay Bar; Sidewalks; Military; Schools; Supermarkets; Gyms; Amusement Parks…et el.
What happened in Colorado happened in Florida in 2016!
What never seems to change is prevention?
Ummm…. Was a non-binary type, a rejected queer. Maybe better to reopen State Hospitals for the Insane and admit that social workers aren’t work a phuck at dealing with the criminally insane.
It makes me sick that this happened. But the thing that surprised me was the low death count inside, until I heard patrons had rushed the shooter. I’m proud of them. I know this is weird to say, but why is it that, after all of the recent disasters where police were just unwilling or unable, depending on department, it was gay guys who spontaneously stopped an incident from getting worse? In all of the other adult incidents, except for a passerby with a gun, nobody did what we all were ready to do after 9/11–somebody just risk it for… Read more »
Sadden to hear about another example of senseless violence that unfortunately occur frequently in our country. Really sad that we as a country, don’t know how to fix it….
We’re not the only country. People stampede and kill each other at sports events in other countries.
I’m concerned about other countries as well but right now, my focus is on our country where we live.
Keep it focused, Marcus!
Others always have to complicate things by bring in peripheral justifications! The British call it “Rubbish” and we Americans” call it “Useless.”
Hunter, really? This isn’t the same thing, man, not by a long shot! These are accidents, shortcomings in the oversight/s in “crowd control” ok!
This was unmitigated hateful, cold-blooded murder!
That is just really sickly blind of you, that you cannot see the difference in these incidents, one is outright cold-blooded murder, the other accidents . . .you see the difference, right (eyeroll).
Four college students were killed in their beds in the middle of the night by brutal knivings in Idaho this weekend. Sad as well.
Very sad!!!!!
Another mass shooting at Walmart in Chesapeake Va. last night. Sad as well.
Better outlaw knives.
the way to fix it is stricter gun control laws, honey
Or lock up criminals
There was a time, not all that long ago, when public reaction to such a story was quite different.
An Arson Attack on a Gay Bar Killed 32 | by Zopoid | Medium
Half a century ago, in the course of social progress, doesn’t really count as “not all that long ago”.
Amazing how some things still stay the same… it didn’t matter then… doesn’t matter now.. at least according to you.
Seems like the club didn’t have security checking for weapons. How’d the shooter get a long gun in there? Too bad he wasn’t stopped before he got in. I feel very sorry for the victims who were killed. Their families have my sympathy. And I wish comfort and healing for the surviving victims and all those impacted by this tragedy.
Hate to say this. But how safe is going to the gay clubs anymore? How safe is anywhere really?
They did some checking. The shooter had made a bomb threat in another county, but that sheriff didn’t redline anybody if he wasn’t asked to. So this guy should have been gunless. They also see he was related to a Repubican official from another state, who did not get reelected. Did that relation help him avoid a penalty for the bomb incident? Is the timing a coincidence?
Nobody is safe anywhere and we never have been. Life itself is risky. You go swimming, get in the shower, drive your car, go to the bar, hook up for sex, or even in your own home you’re at risk. This was a terrible thing to happen, no doubt, but statistically it’s merely a blip on the radar when compared to the thousands, if not millions, who went to any of thousands of bars around the country and returned home safe. I wonder how many died that day on highways, in hospitals due to medical errors, in their own showers… Read more »
Seriously!? You are equating accidental falls in your shower or a highway accident to murder by assault weapon?? There is an enormous difference between all those other things you list and a gunman with a weapon literally only meant for war. Of course life is full of risks. And people die of all sorts of causes. Mass murder is NOT anywhere near the same as those other mostly accidental causes. And here’s the thing, literally for every single one of those other causes of death, there are lots of people and governments working to prevent those from happening. For murder… Read more »
Not at all. I was pointing out the tenuous nature of life itself. Years ago, perhaps before your time, we used to put the mentally infirm in state run institutions. We don’t do that so much any more because people complained it violating the mental patients’ rights. These days they’re out on the streets among us. Often pumped full of mind altering drugs. Years ago parents, media, and schools reinforced moral values among the children. They don’t do that any more. No, today the unruly child is put on drugs or perhaps put in time-out instead of paddling or put… Read more »
Amen. Lock up criminals and institutionalize the criminally insane. Spend money on professionals instead of social workers. We all know that that the homeless industrial complex is just another money laundering scheme. Poorly regulated grant money and dip sip social workers clearly aren’t working. Or maybe that’s the idea
“Open Season” anyone? On any group of American/s you hate? I gotta echo Wayne on this, yo, you know where/what side of the political spectrum this came from, where it ‘usually’ does. . . “Happy Thanksgiving” really?!!! The timing, too, like a kick in the face, just plain flat-out-adverse, sickly evil. . . “Land of the brave” really? Seems they’re brave enough alright, to just cold-blooded murder of innocent ‘American’ people going about their own lives. “Land of the free” yep! Free enough, to go on killing/murder sprees, again, of innocent ‘Americans’ living their lives. How, how is it, that… Read more »
“… where/what side of the political spectrum …” That is exactly where this kind of hate comes from. Leaders of both Parties in the recent elections in public speeches divided us along hateful Party lines. In reality, there are Democrats and Republicans/Liberals and Conservatives who all have common beliefs about all Social issues. Not all Democrats/Liberals love those who are LGTBQ+; not all Republican/Conservatives hate them. Pick any issue, and you have common beliefs from both fronts. Party leaders are to blame for the current level of hate in the US, constantly dividing us along strict Party lines with single views on… Read more »
Awe, man, don’t even, ok! You know, you’re full of it! More Dems/people of color-gay, etc., have been murdered by Reps; the ‘real’ numbers in American hist., do not lie, in terms of hate incidents. Who’s doing the murdering here in this country to whom? Were those Dems bombing African Americans, little girls in church, of course not! However! As an African American born, raised in Minneapolis, Minn., yeah, you’re damn right ALL Dems aren’t all that excepting, i.e., those who are of German descent, the majority of Caucasian folk; hateful, racist, nazis! There’s only a fraction of truth in… Read more »
What a crock, everything you just said! Dems, mostly, are NOT opposed to EVERY American’s freedom . . .
Reps on the other hand, clearly are, it’s cut and dry, man. Drop the mic!
I am so deeply saddened about this. I understand we all have differences in opinions (and similarities just to add on), but for the love of God, let those differences anyway just be. Too many people getting killed and not enough proactive measure to ensure a common ground. My heart goes out to all victims and their family and friends and anyone else whom were adversely affected by this tragedy. God bless!
Excellent response!!!!! You said a lot in very few words.
well, when one side is totally divorced from reality and just makes shit up and gets away with it, lies about issues and the other side all the time, and believes in crazy conspiracy theories (QAnon, the “Deep State”, the whole groomers thing) designed to demonize us and call us evil demonic pedophile child traffickers, their poorly educated and woefully misinformed (and lied to) base gets all foamy at the mouth to take care of us.
so senseless and tragic, this is certainly part of a new normal in American life, honey .. and just now i hear of yet another shooting earlier today (not gay related), but this time in Virginia at a Wal-Mart .. and an employee did the shooting
we definitely need more stricter gun control laws, we just do, it needs to happen soon
Fool. Criminals aren’t giving up their guns, and for home defense I sure as the dickens don’t want to 1) wait for the police to do nothing or 2) go up against an armed criminal and the best I can do is swing a golf club.
Fool rhymes with Tool
honey you da fool, and i pity you too! one does not need no gun for protection nor defense, y’all just need a baseball bat and that should cover it .. better yet, take Taekwondo or Karate if you really wanna lay one on the intruder!
and why am i getting a “-3” for this? y’all don’t want no strict gun control? so y’all content with people just shootin it up anywhere they go? hope y’all know what to do with crazies like these come for you then, honey! wake up people! we don’t need these guns! let the fucked up PO-PO use them for law enforcement, otherwise, anybody else SHOULD NOT BE USING GUNS, period!!
watch me get double or triple da minuses on that, honey! oh of course i’m da foo! silly me, damnit!