The mayor of Colorado Springs praised “two heroes” who helped track down the shooter.
Colorado Springs:
A Colorado man was charged with murder and possible hate crimes Monday after a shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub, while a US Army veteran recounted how he “went into combat mode” to quickly subdue the shooter.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was arrested after Saturday night’s shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs that killed five people and injured at least 18, officials said.
The alleged gunman is currently being held in hospital without bond after being overpowered by clubbers. The alleged shooter will appear in court for the first time in the coming days, El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen said.
No formal charges have been filed yet, but Aldrich is expected to be charged with first-degree murder and “if the evidence supports bias-motivated crimes, we’ll charge that as well,” Allen said.
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers praised “two heroes” who helped track down the gunman after he entered the club and opened fire.
“I think in the opinion of everyone involved,[they]saved a lot of lives,” Suthers said.
The mayor said he spoke with one of the men — Richard Fierro, a 15-year veteran of the US Army, according to NewsMadura.
“I’ve never come across a person who had taken such heroic actions who was so humble about it,” Suthers said. “He just said to me, ‘I was trying to protect my family.'”
In an interview with the Times, Fierro said he was at the club with his wife, daughter and friends watching a drag show when the gunfire started.
Fierro, 45, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan during his military service, said he tackled the gunman by grabbing a handle on the back of his body armor, grabbing his gun and hitting him with it.
“I don’t know exactly what I did, I just went into battle mode,” he said. “I just know I have to kill this man before he kills us.
“I took the gun out of his hand and just started hitting him on the head over and over,” he told the newspaper.
‘despicable rhetoric’
The attack was the deadliest on the LGBTQ community in the United States since a 2016 mass shooting at an Orlando, Florida nightclub that claimed 49 lives.
GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, noted that it happened on the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors victims of transphobic assault, and amid an uptick in hostility against the LGBTQ community in the United States.
“You can draw a straight line from the false and vile rhetoric about LGBTQ people spread by extremists and amplified on social media, to the nearly 300 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year, to the dozens of attacks on our community like this,” GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement.
Colorado Representative Brianna Titone, an openly transgender state legislator, also cited anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
“If politicians and pundits continue to perpetuate tropes, insults and misinformation about the trans and LGBTQ+ community, this is a result,” Titone tweeted.
Transgender rights were a hot topic in the United States ahead of midterm elections earlier this month, with Republicans pushing a slew of legislative proposals to restrict them.
Adrian Vasquez, the Colorado Springs police chief, said the shooting suspect was armed with an “AR-style” rifle and handgun.
Vasquez condemned what he called an “evil act” and vowed to do everything he could to make the community feel safe again.
Gun violence is alarmingly common in the United States. There have been more than 600 mass shootings nationwide this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines such incidents as the shooting of four or more people, not including a gunman.
‘We go on’
On Monday night, hundreds of people gathered in a Colorado Springs park for an emotional candlelight vigil to pay respect to those who were killed.
Speakers praised the resilience of the Rocky Mountain city’s LGBTQ community and urged it not to be intimidated by Saturday night’s horrific violence.
“I’m so glad everyone was able to get together,” 25-year-old piercer Bunnie Phantom told AFP.
“To see everyone here, to have the support and representation in the community… literally means everything to me.”
Allie Porter, who paid a tearful tribute to the victims from the stage, said she had felt the warm embrace of the local community during her 30 years of living in the city.
She promised it wouldn’t be changed by the horrors of the weekend.
“We’re going to carry on as we always have. We’ve been dealing with this for years, decades, and we’ve been rebuilding consistently,” she said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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