By THOMAS PEIPERT (Associated Press)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A 22-year-old gunman walked right into a homosexual nightclub in Colorado Springs and instantly started firing from a “long rifle,” killing not less than 5 folks.
Colorado Springs Police Department Chief Adrian Vasquez says two firearms have been discovered on the scene. The gunman was taken into custody round 5 minutes after police first obtained a name concerning the capturing at Club Q.
Vasquez says two heroic patrons confronted the gunman and stopped the capturing.
“We owe them a great debt of thanks,” the chief mentioned.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows beneath.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — An attacker opened fireplace in a homosexual nightclub, killing 5 folks and wounding 18, officers mentioned Sunday. The membership mentioned the suspect was subdued by patrons.
Authorities obtained a report of a capturing at Club Q at 11:57 p.m. Saturday and responded inside minutes, mentioned Lt. Pamela Castro of the Colorado Springs Police Department.
The violence is the sixth mass killing this month and is available in a yr when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a college capturing in Uvalde, Texas.
Castro had few particulars past the variety of useless and wounded. She mentioned the suspect was injured however didn’t understand how and that the FBI was on the scene.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been briefed on the capturing, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley mentioned. The FBI mentioned it was offering help to Colorado Springs police, however mentioned the police division was main the investigation.
The police division deliberate a information convention for 8 a.m. (10 a.m. EST) on the investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who grew to become the primary brazenly homosexual man within the United States to be elected governor in 2018, mentioned the information was “sickening.”.
“My heart breaks for the family and friends of those lost, injured, and traumatized in this horrific shooting. I have spoken with Mayor (John) Suthers and clarified that every state resource is available to local law enforcement in Colorado Springs,” Polis mentioned. “Colorado stands with our LGTBQ community and everyone impacted by this tragedy as we mourn.”
Although a motive within the capturing wasn’t but clear, nor have been the gender identities of the victims, the incident got here as anti-gay rhetoric has intensified by extremists. In an announcement, Club Q termed the capturing a hate assault.
“Club Q is devastated by the senseless attack on our community,” the membership posted on its Facebook web page. It mentioned its prayers have been with victims and households, including: “We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.”
The capturing got here throughout Transgender Awareness Week and hours earlier than Sunday’s International Transgender Day of Remembrance, when occasions all over the world are held to mourn and memorialize transgender folks misplaced to violence. The Colorado Springs capturing was certain to deliver particular resonance to Sunday’s occasions.
Club Q is a homosexual and lesbian nightclub that encompasses a “Drag Diva Drag Show” on Saturdays, in response to its web site.
In addition to the drag present, Club Q’s Facebook web page mentioned deliberate leisure included a “punk and alternative show” previous a birthday dance occasion, with a Sunday “all ages brunch.”
Colorado Springs is a metropolis of about 480,000 positioned about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Denver that’s dwelling to the U.S. Air Force Academy, in addition to Focus on the Family, a outstanding evangelical Christian ministry.
In November 2015, three folks have been killed and eight wounded at a Planned Parenthood clinic within the metropolis when authorities say a person opened fireplace as a result of he needed to wage “war” on the clinic as a result of it carried out abortions.
The capturing introduced again recollections of the 2016 bloodbath on the Pulse homosexual nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 folks. And it occurred in a state that has skilled a number of infamous mass killings, together with at Columbine High School in 1999, a movie show in suburban Denver in 2012 and at a Boulder grocery store final yr.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California mentioned on Twitter he was “sickened and horrified” by the capturing, including: “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.”
Rep.-elect Eric Sorensen, who’s Illinois’ first brazenly homosexual congressman, 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.”
In June, 31 members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front have been arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and charged with conspiracy to riot at a Pride occasion. Experts warned that extremist teams may see anti-gay rhetoric as a name to motion.
The earlier month, a fundamentalist Idaho pastor instructed his small Boise congregation that homosexual, lesbian and transgender folks ought to be executed by the federal government, which lined up with comparable sermons from a Texas fundamentalist pastor.
There have been 523 mass killings since 2006 leading to 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19, in response to The Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings within the U.S.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”