Suspect faces 5 counts of murder, hate crimes in Colorado Springs nightclub massacre: Updates
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The man suspected of fatally shooting five people and injuring more than a dozen others at an LGBTQ nightclub is facing murder and hate crime charges, court records show.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, is being held without bond and may be charged with five counts of murder and five counts of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, though those charges are preliminary and haven't been filed yet. Authorities on Monday were searching for a motive after the deadly rampage left the community in mourning.
The Colorado Springs Police Department updated Monday the number of people injured in the attack, confirming the five fatalities and saying 17 others sustained gunshot wounds, another person was hurt but not by a gunshot, and another person "was a victim with no visible injuries.'' The department asked anyone who was a victim or has information about the attack to contact the FBI.
The two patrons who took down the gunman before he could cause any further harm were identified at an afternoon news conference as Thomas James and Richard Fierro. Mayor John Suthers called them "heroes'' and said he was amazed by the humility demonstrated by Fierro, an Army veteran who merely told him, "I was trying to protect my family.''
El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen said the suspect remains hospitalized and will likely make his first court appearance via video in the next few days. The Associated Press reported the shooter used an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon and that a handgun and additional ammunition magazines also were found at the crime scene.
Aldrich was arrested within minutes of police arriving at Club Q shortly after midnight Saturday, after the patrons tackled him.
Suthers told NBC's "Today" show that the attack "has all the trappings of a hate crime,'' then emphasized at the news conference, "We all want to ensure that our community is not defined by this tragedy but by our response to it.''
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Hero's daughter broke knee, her boyfriend was killed in assault
The family of a man hailed as one of the heroes who subdued the shooter sustained several injuries and endured a major loss in the assault, according a posting on the Facebook page of the brewery they own.
Jessica Fierro said her husband Richard Fierro — identified by authorities as one of the two persons who confronted the alleged gunman — said their daughter's boyfriend, Raymond Green, was killed in the barrage.
Daughter Kassy broke a knee scrambling for cover, Richard injured his hands and legs, their best friends were hit by multiple shots and she herself was bruised during the chaotic moments at Club Q late Saturday, Jessica Fierro said.
"NO ONE should ever have to witness bloodshed like this,'' she said.
Richard Fierro, who served four tours of duty as an Army officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the New York Times he "went into combat mode'' in wresting a handgun away from the attacker and pummeling him with it. “I just know I have to kill this guy before he kills us,” he told the newspaper.
CLUB Q HERO: Former Army soldier went into hero mode to subdue shooter at Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub
Suspect's 2021 arrest examined
Authorities believe Aldrich, who is being treated for injuries, acted alone.
In an interview with 9News, a television station in Denver, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said the suspect’s mother is not cooperating with law enforcement and the suspect was injured when two club patrons confronted him.
In 2021, Aldrich was arrested after his mother reported that he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons, police said. Though authorities at the time said no explosives were found, gun control advocates are asking why police didn’t try to trigger Colorado’s “red flag” law, which would have allowed authorities to seize the weapons his mother says he had.
Allen said the state has "very restrictive sealing laws'' pertaining to cases that have been dismissed. There’s no public record that prosecutors charged Aldrich in that incident, so a red flag law would not apply.
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Relatives and friends identify, pay tribute to those killed in the shooting
On Monday afternoon, authorities released the names of the five people killed. Before that, family members and friends have been coming forward with tributes, identifying all the victims.
Daniel Aston, 28, was a bartender and entertainer at the club, where his parents would join in the cheers at his shows. Fellow bartender Derrick Rump was bubbly and a jokester, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. The newspaper also said Raymond Green's death was confirmed by his mother. According to social media posts, he was at the club with his girlfriend celebrating a friend's birthday.
Ashley Paugh was a wife and mother who loved the outdoors, her family said in a statement. A fifth victim, Kelly Loving, was a trans woman who turned 40 last week and moved from Memphis to Denver earlier in the year in hopes of finding a community that embraced her identity, her friend Natalee Bingham said.
Sabrina Aston said her son Daniel enjoyed the club because it gave him a safe place to be himself and he liked helping the LGBTQ community.
“We are in shock, we cried for a little bit, but then you go through this phase where you are just kind of numb, and I’m sure it will hit us again,” she said. “I keep thinking it’s a mistake, they made a mistake, and that he is really alive." Read more here.
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Contributing: James Bartolo, Pueblo Chieftain
Still hard to talk about the tragedy
Emotions remained raw Monday, when Club Q bartender Sean Shelby visited the growing memorial with friends. He tried to explain to a USA TODAY reporter what had happened — the muzzle flashes, the gunshots, the screams of terror.
On Facebook, Shelby had posted that he survived but two colleagues died. He opened his mouth to speak but tears began streaming down his face, past his nose ring. He huddled deeper into his grey hoodie as a friend comforted him.
“I’m sorry. I can’t,” he said, walking away, sobbing.
– Trevor Hughes
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Authorities verified names, pronouns of victims instead of 'deadnaming'
Colorado Springs police made a point of telling the media the preferred pronouns of the shooting victims, after verifying with their families.
That was a welcome decision for Olivia Hunt, a policy director from the National Center for Transgender Equality. She was heartened police are using the names the victims go by, not what appears on their driver’s licenses or birth certificates.
“It is refreshing to hear that they are taking the time to make sure they're known by the correct names and pronouns,” Hunt said. “Otherwise, it’s being even more disrespectful in death as they are by some in life.”
The practice of referring to people by a name they don't want, especially in the transgender community, is called ''deadnaming,” according to Dr. Jason Lambrese, a psychiatrist at the Cleveland Clinic.
“A transgender person may decide to no longer use their birth or legal name. Instead, they’ll choose a name that better aligns with identity,” Lambrese said. “The person who they once were is dead, but the new person is alive, so their current name should be used.” Read more here.
– Terry Collins
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Club Q a safe haven for youngsters to discover their identity
For teens who struggled to find where they belonged and what their identity was, Club Q played an integral role in providing a safe space for exploration — even if that just meant talking, said longtime patron Haylea Turner, 24, who grew up nearby. Although the bar served alcohol, it was open to anyone 18 or older.
Monday, Turner visited the growing memorial outside the club with her black Lab mix dog Olive, remembering the good times she had inside dancing. Turner said two of her friends where there Saturday when the gunman opened fire.
“It’s one of the only places that was 18+ and that was so important to young people,” she said. “You can’t find where you belong in high school but you could go to Club Q and discover who you are and where you fit in the world.”
Turner said the club’s different theme events made each night different, but no matter who was on stage or who you were dancing with, Club Q felt like a safe place.
She lamented that amid growing acceptance of LGBTQ folks, attacks like this weekend's shooting show there's still a ways to go.
“It used to feel like we were making great strides toward progress. And now we keep taking strides back,'' Turner said. "So more than ever it was important to get together there and show that we mattered, that we were a community.”
– Trevor Hughes
Heroic patrons ended bloodshed
At least two patrons who intervened in the attack, preventing further injuries and likely loss of life, were called "heroic" by Vasquez. One of them grabbed a handgun from the suspect, hit him with it and held him down until police arrived moments later.
“Had that individual not intervened this could have been exponentially more tragic,” Suthers told The Associated Press.
Of the 25 people injured, at least seven were in critical condition, and some were hurt trying to flee, authorities said. It was unclear how many of them were shot, police said. Suthers said there was “reason to hope” all of those hospitalized would recover.
With the Club Q shooting, 2022 has already surpassed 2019 for the most mass killings with firearms in a year in the U.S. at 34, according to the AP/USA TODAY/Northeastern University database.
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Violence lasted just minutes
Authorities were called to Club Q, a cherished safe spot for the LGBTQ community in conservative-leaning Colorado Springs, at 11:57 p.m. Saturday with a report of a shooting. The first officer arrived at midnight, officials said.
Joshua Thurman, 34, said he was in the club with about two dozen other people and was dancing when the shots began. He ran with another person to a dressing room where someone already was hiding. They locked the door, turned off the lights and got on the floor but could hear the violence unfolding, including the gunman getting beaten up, he said.
“I could have lost my life – over what? What was the purpose?” he said as tears ran down his cheeks. “We were just enjoying ourselves. We weren’t out harming anyone. We were in our space, our community, our home, enjoying ourselves like everybody else does.”
Colorado Springs, a city of about 480,000 people 70 miles south of Denver, is home to the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Olympic Training Center and Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical Christian ministry that lobbies against LGBTQ rights.
The group condemned the shooting and said it “exposes the evil and wickedness inside the human heart.”
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Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric intensifies
Drag events have recently been a key focus of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and protests. Opponents, including politicians, have proposed banning children from attending drag events and have falsely claimed they are used to “groom” children.
In June this year, 31 members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and charged with conspiracy to riot at a Pride event.
Bunny Bee, a burlesque performer who performed at Club Q between 2012 and 2015, addressed over 100 mourners in Colorado Springs' Acacia Park during a Monday night vigil. She called on the crowd to band together against anti-LGBTQ political rhetoric.
"We need to continue to fight back the hate, the politicians endangering the lives of this community," she said. "It needs to stop."
She told USA TODAY that anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is "quite obvious" in legislation like Florida's "Parental Rights in Education" bill, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March 2022. The bill places restrictions on discussions about sexuality and gender identity in schools.
"It creates hate automatically by not saying a word that is defined completely different by them than what it truly is," Bunny Bee said. "It's nothing other than 'love is love.'"
— James Bartolo, The Pueblo Chieftain
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Another shooting rocks the US
The United States has seen a number of high-profile shootings this year, including massacres in Buffalo, New York, where 10 Black people were killed, and Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in May.
Saturday's shooting is the sixth mass killing this month and brought back memories of the 2016 attack at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 people dead and 53 injured. The assault at the Pulse nightclub was the second-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Colorado has experienced several mass killings, including at Columbine High School in 1999, a movie theater in suburban Denver in 2012 and at a Boulder supermarket last year.
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Contributing: Susan Miller, Cady Stanton, Jorge L. Ortiz and Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; Sarah Ann Dueñas, USA TODAY Network; Erin Udell, The (Fort Collins) Coloradoan; The Associated Press