Colorado mass shooter stopped by ‘heroic’ clubgoers

WASHINGTON: The gunman who opened fire inside an LGBTQ Colorado nightclub, killing at least five, was stopped by two “heroic” people inside the club, police told a press conference on Sunday.

They identified the suspect as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, and said he had used a rifle at the club, where partygoers were apparently marking Transgender Day of Remembrance, which pays tribute to trans people targeted in violent attacks.

Eighteen people were wounded in the incident shortly before midnight, police said, adding that an unspecified number of the wounded remained in critical condition.

The shooting was the latest in a long history of attacks on LGBTQ venues in the United States, the deadliest of which claimed 49 lives at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.

The suspect in Colorado Springs entered Club Q and immediately began shooting at people inside, police chief Adrian Vasquez told a press conference.

“At least two heroic people inside the club confronted and fought with the suspect and were able to stop the suspect from continuing to kill and harm others.”

Joshua Thurman of Colorado Springs was in the club at the time.

“It was so scary,” he told reporters.

“There were bodies on the floor. There was shattered glass, broken cups, people crying.

“It was supposed to be our safe space. Where are we supposed to go?”

Aeron Laney, 24, was at the club for the first time, having just moved to Colorado Springs.

She described a small club where everyone seemed to know each other, the kind of place she knew she would fit right in.

“Everyone was just having a good time and smiling and laughing,” she told AFP, tearfully looking at the bank of flowers growing outside the club.

“I just can’t wrap my head around somebody just walking in and seeing people that are so happy and so comfortable in their community and just wanting to end that.”

The authorities said the suspect was being treated at a local hospital but they released no other information about him, adding that law enforcement officials are investigating.

A 21-year-old man with the same name was arrested on June 18 last year after his mother said he had threatened to hurt her with a homemade bomb or “multiple weapons”, according to a news release at the time from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.