November 21, 2022 Mass shooting in Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs police have not released the names of the deceased, but CNN has identified one of those killed in the Club Q shooting as Daniel Aston. His parents also confirmed his identity to a Denver newspaper.

Bartender Michael Anderson saw the gunman and ducked behind the bar where he and Aston worked as glass rained down around him, he told CNN on Monday. He thought he was going to die, said a prayer and as he moved to escape the scene, he saw two people who he didn’t know beating and kicking the gunman, he said.

Anderson was crushed to later learn Aston hadn’t made it out of the bar, which Colorado Springs’ LGBTQ community considered a safe space.

Aston, 28, was a bar supervisor at Club Q, said Anderson, who had known Aston for a few years and who considered him a friend.

He added that Aston was an “amazing person. He was a light in my life, and it’s surreal that we’re even talking about him in the past tense like this.”

Aston moved to Colorado Springs two years ago to be closer to his mother and father, parents Jeff and Sabrina Aston told The Denver Post. The club was a few minutes from their home, and after one of Daniel’s friends told them he’d been shot, they rushed to the emergency room – only to find he’d never arrived.

Daniel Aston was 4 years old when he told his mother he was a boy, and it was another decade before he came out as transgender, his mother told the newspaper. He thought himself bashful, but that wasn’t the case, she said. He never knew a stranger, even as a kid.

“He had so much more life to give to us, and to all his friends and to himself,” she told The Post.

“He always said, ‘I’m shy,’ but he wasn’t. He wrote poetry. He loved to dress up. He got into drama in high school. He’s an entertainer. That’s what he really loves.”

Barbara Poma the owner of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people were shot and killed in 2016, said her first reaction to the shooting in Colorado Springs was "not again."

"I mean, I just thought to myself, not again. We can't keep doing this. It was heartbreaking and It was horribly sad," Poma said.

Poma said that she reached out to the owners of Club Q where the shooting occurred over the weekend in Colorado but she hasn't connected with them yet.

"I'm looking to connect with them because I sadly know all too well how they're feeling, what they're facing. And I would just love to be a source for them," she said.

She said that in her experience, it can be a "pretty lonely place to be sitting as the owner" of an establishment where an attack happened.

Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said on CNN Monday that the suspect in the shooting is still hospitalized and is "determined not to speak to investigators." 

Asked about the reports that the suspect was arrested in 2021 after his mother reported to police that he allegedly threatened her with a homemade bomb, Vasquez said that she "has not been cooperative with law enforcement. "We did of course attempt to interview her. But we're not able to do that," he said.

"We would certainly welcome an interview with her at any time," he said, adding that police are pursuing interviews with other people who know the suspect.

Vasquez noted that no charges have been filed against the suspect yet, but he expects that to happen soon after he is released from the hospital.

Records indicate that Anderson Lee Aldrich, the Colorado Springs mass shooting suspect, purchased both weapons brought to the attack — an AR-style rifle and a handgun, two law enforcement sources tell CNN.

CNN has not confirmed when those purchases were made.

The sources say Aldrich's 2021 arrest over a bomb threat would not have shown up in background checks because the case was never adjudicated, the charges were dropped, and the records were sealed. It is not clear what led to the sealing of the records.

The suspect doesn’t appear to have a large social media history that would readily help pinpoint a possible motive, according to the law enforcement sources.

The Mayor of Colorado Springs, John Suthers, said the “remarkable” intervention from patrons at Club Q ultimately saved many lives.

Speaking to CNN Monday morning, Suthers said “the thing that really was remarkable was the intervention of patrons that brought this thing to a halt very quickly.”

“The first dispatch call was 11:57 p.m., police arrive at 12 a.m., by the time they're in there at 12:02 a.m., he is subdued by patrons, and the police take him into custody,” Suthers laid out.

Investigators are already “getting a clearer picture,” as they speak to witnesses, Suthers said. “But we’ll be getting a much clearer picture over the next couple of days.”

Suthers thinks charges for the suspect will come “fairly quickly.”

“This is a community in mourning,” he said. “We are simply not going to let the actions of one single individual, regardless of what their motivations were, to define this community.”  

Mass shootings are “a thing that cities have to deal with and show their resiliency, but the only thing you can do is reach out, take care of the victims, and make sure that justice is served.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said his state has too many mass shootings.

“I do think, obviously, we've got to be concerned once again, to have a mass shooting Colorado,” Weiser said on CNN This Morning. “This is something that we have too much of in our state and we're going to keep looking at how we advance gun safety.”

In 2019, Colorado passed a controversial red flag law that allows family members, a roommate, or law enforcement to petition a judge to temporality seize a person’s firearms if they are deemed a risk. 

The suspected gunman, Anderson Aldrich, was previously arrested in June 2021 in connection with a bomb threat, authorities said.

When asked why the red flag law wasn’t used in Aldrich’s case, Weiser said it was “too early to make any decisions” about this case.

“I do believe officers know we have a red flag law. We need to make sure it's top of mind and that everyone understands how it works and what the rationale and reasoning for it is. I don't have enough information to know exactly what the officers knew,” he said. “What we can do is make sure that we embrace this as a call to action to better educate about this law to make sure that law enforcement understands it and is able to use it to protect lives.”

The suspected gunman remains hospitalized for injuries he received during the incident. “Obviously he was taken alive and there will be a full investigation and law enforcement authorities are going to be working to make sure, to bring justice, to honor the victims, and so many people who are struggling to understand how could this have happened?”

At a synagogue in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Sunday night, every room was packed with more people overflowing outside into the cold.

A pride flag was draped across the bimah, and in the crowd could be seen pride flags and Christian crosses. 

The diverse cross section of community was there to be part of a vigil for the victims of Saturday's shooting at LGBTQ nightclub Club Q. At least five people were killed and 25 others injured when a gunman entered the club and immediately opened fire.

Aeron Laney and Justin Godwin said they left the club three minutes before the shooting. They just moved to Colorado Springs from California's central coast a few months ago. This was their first time ever going to Club Q. 

They estimated just 30 to 35 people in total were in the club, but said no more than 50.

They found out Sunday morning what had happened, and came to the makeshift memorial that had formed outside the club.

They said you hear of things other places, but it’s hard to believe it happening where you live.

"It's crazy that it's here. It's not real. It's surreal," Godwin said. 

"This was our safe space," Laney said. "It felt like home."  

The co-owners of Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, say they have reviewed surveillance video of the shooting that left at least five dead and 25 injured.

Speaking to the New York Times, Matthew Haynes and Nic Grzecka, co-owners of Club Q, said on the video they saw the heavily-armed gunman pull up wearing a military-style flak jacket. Haynes adding he used “tremendous firepower” when he entered the nightclub. 

Haynes told the newspaper the gunman had a rifle and what appeared to be six magazines of ammunition.

Once the gunman entered the building, he was quickly taken down by two people Haynes detailed.

Speaking to ABC, co-owner Nic Grzecka said the accused gunman, Anderson Aldrich, is not known at the club.

“He’s never spent money on a credit card or ID ever scanned in our business that we know of. I think this was a community of target for him,” Grzecka told Good Morning America.

CNN is working to contact the owners of the club.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told CNN it’s “hard to conceive” how the Club Q shooting wasn’t motived by hate.  

“This was a well-known nightclub that individuals — regardless of their sexual orientation, or gender identity — the LGBTQ community knew was a safe place, was a place where people could be their authentic selves. And someone came and essentially took all that away,” he said Monday morning.  

“We are living at a time of rising hate and rising demonization. And all of us in leadership positions have to recognize that our words matter. We can and we must have a more inclusive 'we the people,'” Weiser said. “The legitimization of hating towards LGBTQ+ individuals has to stop. The idea that we can say to someone that they're less than human or they don't have a place in our society is a very dangerous road.”  

“We can and we all must recognize that everyone has a right to be their best authentic selves, to love who they love and not have to live in fear that they are going to be demonized,” he added.  

Investigators have yet to determine a motive, police say, though they are considering whether the attack was a hate crime.