On Saturday night a gunman opened fire at the gay night club Q located in Colorado Springs.
The rampage killed five people and left 25 others injured.
Armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic, the suspect entered the nightclub shooting everywhere as he came in.
The bartender performed a heroic act and managed to stop the shooter until the police arrived at the scene and arrested him.
Unspent Ammo Found At Scene
At the scene, police discovered the firearm which had been used in the crime, along with a lot of unspent ammo.
The fact that it still had a lot of ammunition demonstrates that the tragedy could have been even worse.
According to Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, the bartender managed to grab the shooter’s gun and put him in a headlock until police arrived at the scene.
The club spoke on its Facebook page. They said what happened was a hate attack.
Now investigators are investigating whether that was the real motive for the crime and determine whether the shooter will face additional hate crime charges.
Michael Allen, El Paso’s district attorney, has said that at the very least the shooter will answer for charges of first-degree murder.
NEW: Media reporting that the 22-year-old Colorado Springs mass shooting suspect is the grandson of California State Assemblyman Randy Voepel – a San Diego-area Republican who made headlines in 2021 after comparing January 6 to "Lexington and Concord.” https://t.co/yUJ1FYgUph
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) November 20, 2022
Who is the Shooter?
The shooter has been identified by police as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Algrich.
In 2021, Algrich was arrested for threatening his mother’s life through the use of weapons and homemade bombs and was briefly held in police custody.
Authorities have not commented much on the 2021 incident, but social media posts of Algrich appear to show he was a Donald Trumps supporter and supported the riots of January 6, 2021.
With regard to the case now, authorities said that of the 25 people injured in the Q attack, seven are in serious condition.
In the rampage, several people, frightened and desperate, began to run in an attempt to save themselves and ended up being injured and trampled.
Colorado Springs shooter Anderson Lee Aldrich is the grandson of Republican State Assemblymember Randy Voepel.
Voepel represents the 71st district in the San Diego area.
Voepel previously made comments comparing the January 6 attacks to the Revolutionary War. pic.twitter.com/z9F1FMLLfU
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) November 21, 2022
Echoes of Past Tragedy
This tragedy ignited the memory of another similar crime of 2016 in Orlando, Florida, when 49 people were murdered in a gay nightclub.
Joshua Thurman is one of the survivors of Saturday’s attack. He said it was scary and that they were on the dance floor when he heard a sound that sounded like a gunshot.
Already in an instinctive state of alert, he heard the same sound soon after and was then able to confirm that it was a gunshot.
It was then that he along with other people began to run and hide from the shooter.
Thurman managed to hide in a dressing room with other people. And he said that while they were trapped there they could hear all the tragedy that was going on at the club.
Thurman said that he and everyone who was there that night was intent on having fun and that the gay community doesn’t hurt anyone.
Biden Responds
President Joe Biden spoke out about the incident.
Biden laments what happened and said that unfortunately the LGBTQI+ community has suffered several attacks.
He pointed out that gay nightclubs are places of celebration and not of spreading violence.
Biden concluded by saying that we should never accept the spread of hatred.
Investigations continue with the help of the FBl.
