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Colorado shooting suspect due to face formal charges after club rampage

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2022-11-21T21:03:00Z

A colorful memorial to victims could be seen Monday (November 21) outside an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs where a gunman killed at least five people and injured 25 others late on Saturday.

A Colorado man was under arrest on Monday after police said he fatally shot five people and left 17 others with gunshot wounds inside an LGBTQ nightclub over the weekend before two patrons rushed him and stopped the attack.

Colorado Springs police identified the suspect as Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who was taken into custody on Sunday after the attack at Club Q, a night spot patronized by gay, lesbian and transgender people in Colorado’s second-largest city. Police said they had yet to determine a motive for the shooting.

A state judge sealed court records related to the arrest until prosecutors finish the investigation, according to a court filing in El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs.

Local media reported that Aldrich was charged with counts of first-degree murder and bias crimes but a court official said that formal charges had yet to be filed.

Colorado Springs police on Monday revised the total number of wounded to 18. In addition to the 17 people who were shot, an 18th suffered a non-gunshot injury, police said in a news release.

Police said on Twitter they would hold a news conference on Monday at 3:30 p.m. local time (2230 GMT). The U.S. Attorney’s office in Colorado said in a statement on Monday that the FBI was helping local law enforcement in the investigation.

Aldrich was hospitalized and has not made any statements to investigators, Colorado Springs Deputy Police Chief Adrian Vasquez told CNN on Monday.

Multiple firearms were found at the scene of the brief attack, according to police, who said Aldrich used a “long rifle” to shoot his victims. Near the club on Monday, a makeshift memorial was piled with flowers and Pride flags.

The shooting – which Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said “had all the appearances of being a hate crime” – recalled the 2016 Pulse club massacre when a gunman killed 49 people at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, before he was fatally shot by police.

Aldrich was known to law enforcement before the nightclub shooting. He was arrested in June 2021 after his mother reported to authorities that he had threatened to detonate a bomb and harm her with multiple weapons, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office in El Paso County.

Sheriff’s deputies evacuated about 10 nearby homes at the time until Aldrich surrendered. They found no explosives but Aldrich was booked into the county jail on two counts of “felony menacing” and three counts of “first-degree kidnapping,” the news release said. It was unclear when and how he was released.

Leslie Bowman, 41, an account manager in Colorado Springs who rented out the room where Aldrich’s mother was living at the time of the 2021 incident, said those charges against Aldrich had not been pursued.

Bowman described Aldrich as a heavy-set man, more than six feet (183 cm) tall, who rarely smiled and had an imposing air.

“When I heard it was him who did the shooting, I was surprised but not surprised at the same time – just knowing what he did before,” she told Reuters in a phone interview on Monday.

Police said at least two people in Club Q subdued the gunman shortly after he burst in just before midnight on Saturday, preventing further carnage. Police did not identify them.

One of the patrons grabbed a handgun from the shooter and pistol-whipped him with it, and was still on top of the suspect, pinning him down, when police arrived, Mayor Suthers told The New York Times.

“It was quite something. It happened quite quickly. This individual was totally disabled by 12:02. That had a lot to do with the intervention of these patrons,” Suthers told the Times.

One of the two patrons who subdued the suspect suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized, according to Vasquez. The other person was not injured, he said.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in an interview on CNN on Monday said the shooting took place on Transgender Remembrance Day.

Ashley Paugh, 35, of La Junta, Colorado, was one of the five killed at the club. She was capping off a day trip to Colorado Springs with a friend, her sister Stephanie Clark told NBC News. She leaves behind a husband and an 11-year-old daughter,

Paugh, who was not part of the LGBTQ community, had been shopping and had dinner and expected to see a stand-up comedian perform at the club, her sister said.

Another victim was identified as Daniel Aston, 28, a transgender man and bartender at the club who also performed in shows as a dancer, according to a Colorado Public Radio interview with his mother, Sabrina Aston.

“He was the happiest he had ever been,” Sabrina Aston said. “He was thriving and having fun and having friends. It’s just unbelievable.”

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An aerial view shows vehicles parked at the scene, after a mass shooting, at the Club Q gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., November 21, 2022. REUTERS/Drone Base

An aerial view shows police tape, after a mass shooting, at the Club Q gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., November 21, 2022. REUTERS/Drone Base

Jey Swisher embraces fellow mourners as they react after a mass shooting at the Club Q gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

Sam Nichols and Forest Knight attend a vigil after a mass shooting at the Club Q gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

People react after a mass shooting at the Club Q gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt