Ren Kurgis (L) and Jessie Pacheco (R) pay their respects to the victims of the mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on November 20, 2022. At least five people were killed and 18 wounded in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in the US city of Colorado Springs, police said on November 20, 2022. Photo: VCG

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 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 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 US, 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," he added.

Joshua Thurman of Colorado Springs was in the club at the time. "It was so scary," he told reporters Sunday. "There were bodies on the floor. There was shattered glass, broken cups, people crying."

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 hand around somebody just walking in and seeing people that are so happy and so comfortable in their community and just wanting to end that."

Laney and her friend Justin Godwin left minutes before the gunman stormed in.

"Maybe the guy was already there. Like was he in the parking lot... just planning it?" Godwin, 25, said. 

US President Joe Biden released a statement condemning the attack, slamming violence against the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender women of color.

"We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate," he said.

AFP