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up front Monday 21 noveMber 2022

Police: Gunman kills 5 at gay club, is subdued by patrons

Continued from Front said it “exposes the evil and
wickedness inside the hu-
They declined to elaborate man heart.”
on that arrest. No explo- In November 2015, three
sives were found, authori- people were killed and
ties said at the time, and eight wounded at a
The Gazette in Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic
Springs reported that pros- in the city when authorities
ecutors did not pursue any say a gunman targeted the
charges and that records clinic because it performed
were sealed. abortions.
Authorities were called to “Club Q is devastated by
Club Q at 11:57 p.m. Sat- the senseless attack on
urday with a report of a our community,” the club
shooting, and the first offi- posted on Facebook. “We
cer arrived at midnight. thank the quick reactions
Joshua Thurman said he of heroic customers that
was in the club with about subdued the gunman and
two dozen other people ended this hate attack.”
and was dancing when The CEO of a national LG-
the shots began. He initially BTQ-rights organization,
thought it was part of the Kevin Jennings of Lambda
music, until he heard an- Legal, pleaded for tighter
other shot and said he saw restrictions on guns.
the flash of a gun muzzle. “America’s toxic mix of
Thurman, 34, said he ran bigotry and absurdly easy
with another person to access to firearms means
a dressing room where that such events are all too
someone already was hid- common and LGBTQ+ peo-
ing. They locked the door, ple, BIPOC communities,
turned off the lights and got the Jewish community and
on the floor but could hear other vulnerable popula-
the violence unfolding, in- tions pay the price again
cluding the gunman get- Jace Khosla places flowers early Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, near police tape surrounding Club Q, a and again for our political
ting beaten up, he added. gay bar in Colorado Springs, Colo., where a mass shooting took place late on Saturday. leadership’s failure to act,”
“I could have lost my life Associated Press he said in a statement.
— over what? What was School in 1999, a movie that while the motive for Seth Stang was buying flow- The shooting came during
the purpose?” he said as theater in suburban Denver the shootings was not yet ers for the memorial when Transgender Awareness
tears ran down his cheeks. in 2012 and at a Boulder su- clear, “we know that the he was told that two of the Week and just at the start
“We were just enjoying permarket last year. LGBTQI+ community has dead were his friends. The of Sunday’s International
ourselves. We weren’t out It was the sixth mass killing been subjected to horrific 34-year-old transgender Transgender Day of Re-
harming anyone. We were this month and came in a hate violence in recent man said it was like having membrance, when events
in our space, our communi- year when the nation was years.” “a bucket of hot water get- around the world are held
ty, our home, enjoying our- shaken by the deaths of 21 “Places that are supposed ting dumped on you. ... I’m to mourn and remember
selves like everybody else in a school shooting in Uval- to be safe spaces of ac- just tired of running out of transgender people lost to
does.” de, Texas. ceptance and celebration places where we can exist violence.
The gunman was con- Club Q is a gay and lesbian should never be turned into safely.” In June, 31 members of
fronted by “at least two nightclub that features a places of terror and vio- Ryan Johnson, who lives the neo-Nazi group Pa-
heroic people” who fought drag show on Saturdays, lence,” he said. “We can- near the club and was triot Front were arrested in
and subdued the suspect, according to its website. not and must not tolerate there last month, said it was Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and
Vasquez said. Club Q’s Facebook page hate.” one of only two nightspots charged with conspiracy
“We owe them a great said planned entertain- Colorado Gov. Jared Po- for the LGBTQ community to riot at a Pride event. Ex-
debt of thanks,” he added. ment included a “punk lis, who became the first in conservative-leaning perts warned that extremist
Detectives also were ex- and alternative show” pre- openly gay man in the Colorado Springs. “It’s kind groups could see anti-gay
amining whether anyone ceding a birthday dance United States to be elected of the go-to for pride,” the rhetoric as a call to action.
had helped Aldrich before party, with a Sunday all-ag- governor in 2018, called 26-year-old said of the club, The previous month, a fun-
the attack, Vasquez said. es drag brunch. the shooting “sickening.” which is tucked behind oth- damentalist Idaho pastor
Of the 25 injured, at least Drag events have become “My heart breaks for the er businesses, including a told his small Boise congre-
seven were in critical con- a focus of anti-LGBTQ family and friends of those bowling alley and a sand- gation that gay, lesbian
dition, authorities said. rhetoric and protests re- lost, injured and trauma- wich shop. and transgender people
Some were hurt trying to cently as opponents, in- tized,” Polis said. “Colora- Colorado Springs, a city of should be executed by the
flee, and it was unclear if all cluding politicians, have do stands with our LGTBQ about 480,000 located 70 government, which lined
of the victims were shot, a proposed banning children community and everyone miles (112 kilometers) south up with similar sermons
police spokesperson said. from them, falsely claiming impacted by this tragedy of Denver, is home to the from a Texas fundamental-
The shooting rekindled they’re used to “groom” as we mourn.” U.S. Air Force Academy, ist pastor.
memories of the 2016 mas- children. A makeshift memorial the U.S. Olympic Training Since 2006, there have
sacre at the Pulse gay Attorney General Merrick sprang up Sunday near the Center, as well as Focus been 523 mass killings and
nightclub in Orlando, Flor- Garland was briefed on the club, with flowers, a stuffed on the Family, a prominent 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19,
ida, that killed 49 people. shooting and the FBI was animal and candles and evangelical Christian minis- according to The Associ-
Colorado has experienced assisting police with the in- a sign saying “Love over try that lobbies against LG- ated Press/USA Today da-
several mass killings, includ- vestigation. hate” next to a rainbow- BTQ rights. The group con- tabase on mass killings in
ing at Columbine High President Joe Biden said colored heart. demned the shooting and the U.S.q