Colorado Springs police say that at least five people have been killed and at least 25 more are injured in a mass shooting at a gay nightclub called Club Q on Saturday night.
Police say that the suspect arrived just before midnight, and started firing almost immediately.
CNN reports that the suspect has been identified by authorities as Anderson Lee Aldrich (22 years old). According to CNN, Aldrich used a long gun. Aldrich was also seen with two other rifles.
According to reports, the violence was stopped when club patrons subdued and attacked the gunman. He is being treated at a nearby medical facility. He was not shot at by police, according to the officers. Police are currently investigating to determine if it was a hate crime.
President Biden released a statement addressing the tragedy and said, “While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that gun violence has a particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation,”He started.
“We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all forms. I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, but we must do more. And we must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot tolerate hate.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to the office, called it the attack “horrific, sickening, and devastating.”
“My heart breaks,” Polis said in a statement, “for the family and friends of those lost, injured, and traumatized in this horrific shooting.”
The shooting came before Sunday’s Transgender Day of Rememberance, which marks American lives lost to violence against the trans community.
GLAAD also took responsibility for the Colorado shooting. The group’s president, Sarah Kate Ellis said in part,
“This unspeakable attack has robbed countless people of their friends and family and an entire community’s sense of safety. You can draw a straight line from the false and vile rhetoric about LGBTQ people spread by extremists and amplified across social media, to the nearly 300 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year, to the dozens of attacks on our community like this one.”
Agents with the FBI’s Denver office are assisting in the investigation.
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