The gunman who killed at least five in a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub was stopped by two “heroic” people in the crowd, police said Sunday.
Officers identified the suspect as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, and said he had used a rifle at the club, where partygoers were marking the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors people killed in transphobic attacks.
Twenty-five people were wounded in the shooting shortly before midnight on Saturday, according to city officials, with some in critical condition, police said.
The shooting was the latest in a long history of attacks on LGBTQ venues in the United States, the deadliest of which claimed 49 lives at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.
Police spokesperson Pamela Castro said Sunday that police arrived within four minutes of a call about an active shooting at Club Q, and that the suspect had been subdued just two minutes later.
The suspect entered the club and immediately began shooting, 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.
Earlier bomb threat –
The authorities said the suspect was being treated at a local hospital and noted that officials including the FBI were investigating.
A man with the same name was arrested on June 18 last year, aged 21, after his mother said he had threatened to hurt her with a homemade bomb or “multiple weapons,” according to a news release at the time from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
( Source AFP)
