Monday, November 21, 2022 – Two bartenders have been confirmed among the five people who were shot dead at an LGBTQ club on Saturday night, November 19.
The pictures of Daniel Aston and Derrick Rump have been posted on Facebook by a fellow worker at Club Q in Colorado Springs, USA.
Paying tribute to his two colleagues on Sunday, November 20, the Club Q worker said: “My boys are gone. Plz (sic) take care of each other. I love you both so much.”
25 people were also injured in the attack, which appeared to be a premeditated attack by a single gunman carrying an AR-15 rifle.
Sole suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, has been arrested in connection with the crime that happened on the eve of The Transgender Day of Remembrance at 11:57pm local time.
Aston, 28, was a trans man and the shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.
Police have also revealed that Aldrich was subdued by at least two heroic members of the public in the club.
He is now in custody at a local hospital, being treated for unknown injuries.
It has emerged that Aldrich was also arrested in June 2021 for a bomb threat but was never formally charged.
Joshua Thurman, 34, has told reporters in the US how he survived the attack after initially hearing four or five gunshots whilst he was dancing.
He said: “I thought it was the music because there were no screams, no shouts of ‘Help, help,’ nothing like that.
“Then I heard more shots and saw the flash from the muzzle of the gun.
“When I realised what was going on, I ran to the dressing room immediately. There was a customer that followed me, and there was a drag performer, Del Lusional, who was in the dressing room.
“I made them lock the doors and we got down on the floor and cut out the lights immediately. We heard everything. We heard more shots fired. We heard the assailant be beat up by someone who I assume tackled him.
“We heard the police come in. We heard them yelling at him. We heard then saying ‘Check certain people, cause they’re critical.'”
After leaving the dressing room, Thurman said he saw bodies on the ground. On its Facebook page, a statement from Club Q said it was “devastated by the senseless attack on our community” and added that thoughts and prayers were with the victims and their families and friends, while expressing appreciation for “the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack”.
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