MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Five people dead after shooting at gay club in US

Anti-gay rhetoric (and subsequent action) seems to be gaining momentum throughout the United States

At least five people were killed and 25 others were injured shortly before midnight Saturday at a gay bar in the US State of Colorado, where a shooting took place at 11.57 p.m. local time.

Colorado Springs Police Lt. Pamela Castro told reporters Sunday morning that a wounded suspect was in custody for his alleged involvement in the shooting at Club Q, a local gay bowling alley. Castro also said the FBI was on the scene and assisting in the case.

According to its website, Club Q is an LGBT+ nightclub that offers a “Drag Diva Drag Show” on Saturdays. “Club Q is devastated by the senseless attack against our community,” the establishment said in a statement. Club Q was holding a “Drag Divas” show Saturday followed by punk and alternative music and a birthday party, according to its Facebook page.

Authorities are investigating whether the suspect is the same person who was arrested in 2021 during a pipe bomb incident that forced the evacuation of at least 10 homes in a Colorado Springs suburb. In June last year, El Paso County Sheriff's Department officials arrested a namesake of the Club Q suspect, who has been identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich, aged 22.

Last year's case was dismissed, so no formal charges were filed. According to The Washington Post, the Club Q shooter's date of birth matches that of the suspect in the 2021 bomb threat, when the man's mother called the police to report that her son had threatened her with a bomb and other weapons.

The attacker arrived with a rifle and began shooting into the crowd. He killed 5 people and wounded 25 before being subdued by some patrons.

The shooting occurred the night before Club Q was to hold an event to commemorate International Transgender Remembrance Day.

In 2016 a similar event, 49 people were killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was also a gay bar.

Anti-gay rhetoric seems to be gaining momentum throughout the United States, according to local press reports.

There have been 523 mass killings since 2006 resulting in 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19, according to The Associated Press/USA Today database of mass killings in the United States.