At least five people have been killed and 18 injured, at least two of them in critical condition, this Sunday by a shooting at an LGTBQ club in the city of Colorado Springs, in the U.S. state of Colorado, the Police Department has confirmed.
The incident occurred at around 1.03 a.m. local time (9.03 a.m. in mainland Spain) at Club Q, according to the police statement reported by local channel KRDO.
The suspect was injured during the attack and is receiving medical treatment at a local hospital in custody. The local Prosecutor’s Office has identified him as Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who entered the club with a «long-range assault rifle» with which he opened indiscriminate fire «immediately after entering the premises» until at least two customers began to reduce him.
In a statement published on Facebook, the club’s management described the shooting as the product of a «hate attack» against the LGTBQ community — an extreme not yet confirmed by the authorities — and assured that it was the customers themselves who managed to reduce the attacker.
«Club Q is devastated by this senseless attack on our community. Our prayers and thoughts are with all the victims and their families and friends. We are grateful for the quick reaction of the heroic clientele, who managed to subdue the shooter and put an end to this hateful attack,» the statement said.
Police have confirmed that they are investigating the shooting as an attack specifically targeting the LGTBQ community, Colorado Springs Police spokeswoman Lt. Pamela Castro confirmed.
Later Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez has confirmed that «two heroes» confronted the attacker. «We owe them all our gratitude,» he stressed. Vasquez revealed that Aldrich was carrying two firearms, one of them a «long rifle», which were found at the scene.
UNANIMOUS CONDEMNATION Democrats and Republicans alike have condemned the attack, which Democratic state Sen. John Hickenlooper described as an «unspeakable act.» «We have to protect the lives of the LGTBQ community from all this hate,» the senator lamented.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, has declared himself «heartbroken.» «Colorado stands with our LGTBQ community and all those affected by this tragedy,» he said. Polis was in 2018 the first openly gay man to be elected governor of a U.S. state.
Colorado Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, one of the most extreme elements of the party and a staunch supporter of gun rights, has called the incident «absolutely horrible.» «This lawless violence must end and end quickly,» she told the New York Times.
Later, U.S. President Joe Biden reacted to this «senseless» attack, noting that «the motive» of the attack is not yet clear, but he recalled that there have been other hate attacks in recent years and warned that «this violence is escalating».
«Places that are supposed to be safe, spaces of tolerance and celebration, should never become places of terror and violence. But it happens all too often. We need to drive out the injustices that contribute to violence against LGTBIQ+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hatred,» he argued.
Biden has linked what happened to the «epidemic of gun violence» and recalled the approval during his term of a regulation that timidly restricts the use of guns. «I have signed the most important gun safety law in almost three decades,» he has emphasized. «But we have to do more. Assault weapons must be banned and weapons of war must be taken off the streets of America,» he added.
The incident is reminiscent of the 2016 incident at the Pulse gay cub in Orlando, when an individual killed 49 people before being shot by police.
The United States has counted 601 mass shootings, defined as those with at least four people killed or wounded not including the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed by firearms in the country in 2022.
