On Saturday(19 November) night, five people were killed and 25 others injured in a shooting at a Gay nightclub (Club Q) in Colorado, Springs(United States).
Club Q in Colorado is a long-established venue in a modest strip mall, considered a safe haven for the LGBTQ community.
Suspect Anderson Lee Andrich, 22 is now in Police custody and being treated for his injuries. His long rifle was seized by the police after his attack. The shooter was subdued by brave clubgoers.
Police said, that they are finding the reasons whether the attack was motivated by hate or not.
The idea came as LGBTQ communities and their allies around the world prepare to celebrate the Transgender day of remembrance on Sunday, an annual observance to honour transphobic violence victims. The suspect was wearing a military-style flak jacket.
“Several firearms have been found at the venue,” said, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez. The injured people have been sent to a nearby hospital for their treatment immediately after the attack the authorities said.
John Suther the Colorado Springs mayor said the attack ended when two heroic people snatched the handgun and hit him. He further described this club exists as an adult-oriented Gay-Lesbian nightclub and operated for 21 years but had never reported any such threats before.
The incident scared the people there as Joshua Thurman,34 expressed his feelings over the incident.
He said, he ran with a person towards a dressing room and locked the door, turned off the lights and got onto the floors but the sound of violence was clear to make them scared.
“I could have lost my life-over what? What was the purpose?” Joshua said as he started crying. “We were just enjoying ourselves. We weren’t harming anyone. We were in our space, our community, our home, enjoying ourselves as everybody else does” and he started sobbing.
No hate will be tolerated – Prez Biden
President Joe Biden condemns the incident by saying that Americans will not tolerate the hate.
He said, “places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration could never be a place turned into terror and violence”.
Previous Incidents
This attack incident reminds the memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people were killed.
Colorado has experienced several mass killings in the past which includes at Columbine high school in 1999, at a movie theatre in suburban Denver in 2012 and a Boulder supermarket last year.
This incident is the sixth mass killing in the month and came in a year when already the Nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde Texas.
