'When hateful propaganda goes unchecked': Shooting in US LGBTQ nightclub

‘When hateful propaganda goes unchecked’: Mass shooting in LGBTQ nightclub in US

shooting

Yet another tragic shooting has claimed the lives of innocent people in the U.S over the weekend, after a 22-year-old gunman opened fire inside an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five people and injuring 25. 

The first police officer arrived at midnight on Saturday night, just minutes after reports of a shooting at Club Q —  a gay and lesbian nightclub that holds weekly “Drag Diva Drag Show” on Saturdays, according to its website.

Police Chief Adrian Vasquez told reporters at a press conference that two firearms, including a “long rifle,” were found at the scene when officers arrived. 

The gunman, Anderson Lee Aldrich, was confronted by “at least two heroic people” who subdued him, thereby stopping the shooting, Vasquez said.

“We owe them a great debt of thanks,” he praised the individuals.

Mayor John Suthers of Colorado Springs said they grabbed a firearm from Aldrich, hit him with it, and subdued him. When the police arrived, one individual was still on top of the gunman, pinning him down.

Officers arrested Aldrich and took him into custody, before transporting him to hospital for his injuries.

El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen said investigators are still in the process of determining the gunman’s motive. 

Allen added that the attack was being assessed as a hate crime, and that the charges against Aldrich “will likely include first-degree murder.” 

The local police department is believed to be leading the investigation with assistance from the FBI. 

One of the witnesses present at the scene on Saturday night told The Gazette he was among the roughly two dozen patrons on the dance floor when he heard the shots. 

Joshua Thurman, 34, said he ran into a dressing room where he found someone already inside, hiding. 

“I could have lost my life — over what? What was the purpose?” he told The Gazette.

“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.”

Aldrich is known to the police. Last year, he was arrested after his mother made allegations against him. According to her, her son had threatened to detonate her with a homemade explosive. On Sunday, police refused to comment on this case. 

The latest mass shooting at Club Q is the sixth mass shooting in the U.S this month. 

Charlotte Clymer, a transgender activist, tweeted: “This mass shooting in Colorado Springs is horrifying and exactly what LGBTQ organisations and leaders have been warning would happen if the violent rhetoric toward our community continued.

“This is what happens when hateful propaganda goes unchecked.”

President Joe Biden said in a special press conference, “…we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years”.

“Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence — yet it happens far too often,” he said.

“We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate.”

Colorado Governor Jared Polis, America’s first openly gay man to be elected governor four years ago, tweeted:

“This is horrific, sickening and devastating. My heart breaks for the family and fiends of those lost, injured and traumatised in this terrible shooting.”

“We are eternally grateful for the brave individuals who blocked the gunman, likely saving lives in the process, and for the first responders who responded swiftly to this horrific shooting.”


“Colorado stands with our LGBTQ Community and everyone impacted by this tragedy as we mourn.”

Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California tweeted: “Sickened and horrified by the shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs.”

“The LGBTQ+ community is once again the target of the most terrible violence. And devastating attacks like these will only become more common if we don’t fight back. It must stop.” 

Illinois’ first openly gay congressman, representative-elect Eric Sorensen, tweeted that “we must use loud voices to stand up against hate”.

“Our country must turn down the hateful rhetoric aimed at our LGBTQ community,” he said.

New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addressed the Republican Party on twitter, telling them to “Connect the dots.”

“After Trump elevated anti-immigrant & anti-Latino rhetoric, we had the deadliest anti-Latino shooting in modern history,” she wrote. 

“After anti-Asian hate w/COVID, Atlanta. Tree of life. Emanuel AME. Buffalo. And now after an anti-LGBT+ campaign, Colorado Springs.”


Two of the victims of Saturday night’s shootings have been identified as Daniel Davis Aston and Derrick Rump —  two of the club’s bartenders. 

ABC News reported Aston’s mother, Sabrina, described her son as “our baby and … our youngest”.

On Facebook, tributes have been pouring in for Rump, with one friend describing him as “one of the best and fastest bartenders around, and a good friend”, and another saying, “I’m so happy for the light you brought into my life and without you the world will be so dim.”

Another tribute said, “Hate has a habit of creeping around where it doesn’t belong. We now must be weary of wherever we think is our sanctuary.”

Since 2006, 523 mass killings have occurred in the US, killing 2727 innocent people, according to the Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the US.

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