A 22-year-old gunman opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle inside a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs killing five people and leaving 25 injured, reports Associate Press.
However, he was subdued by “heroic” patrons and arrested by police who arrived within minutes, authorities said Sunday.
The suspect used an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon in the Saturday night shooting at Club Q, a law enforcement official said.
A handgun and additional ammunition magazines also were recovered, according to the official, who could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.
On its Facebook page, the club called it a “hate attack.” Investigators were still determining a motive and whether to prosecute it as a hate crime, said El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen. Charges against the suspect “will likely include first-degree murder,” he said.
Police identified the gunman as Anderson Lee Aldrich, who was in custody and being treated for injuries.
A man with that name was arrested in 2021 after his mother reported he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons, authorities said. They declined to elaborate on that arrest. No explosives were found, authorities said at the time, and The Gazette in Colorado Springs reported that prosecutors did not pursue any charges and that records were sealed.
The attack ended when someone grabbed a handgun from the gunman and hit him with it, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told The New York Times. The person who hit the gunman had him pinned down when police arrived.
Suthers said the club had operated for 21 years and had not reported any threats before Saturday’s attack.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
