By Mirna Alsharif, Erick Mendoza and Matthew Mulligan —
NBC News
Two patrons helped subdue and neutralize the 22-year-old suspect who opened fire late Saturday at Club Q, a Colorado Springs gay nightclub, and helped save lives, authorities said.
“While the suspect was inside the club,
at least two heroic individuals confronted and fought him,
preventing
to keep killing and injuring others,” Colorado State Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said at a news conference Sunday morning.
"We owe a great debt of gratitude to them."
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, who in 2018 became the first openly gay governor in the United States, said "brave individuals" intervened during the
"horrible, sick and devastating"
shooting in which at least five people were killed and 18 others were injured.
Jessy Smith Cruz hugs Jadzia Dax McClendon the morning after the mass shooting at Club Q, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on November 20, 2022.JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Images
“We are forever grateful for the brave individuals who blocked the shooter, likely saving lives, and for the quick first responders to this horrific shooting,” he said in a statement.
"Colorado stands with our LGBTQ community and all those affected by this tragedy as we mourn together."
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His statement was seconded by one from Club Q, where the mass shooting took place, which thanked in a statement the "heroic customers" who stopped the attack.
“We appreciate the quick reactions from the heroic patrons who subdued the shooter and put an end to this hateful attack,” the club posted on its Facebook page.
The suspect,
identified as
22-year-old
Anderson Lee Aldrich,
is in custody at a local hospital with unspecified injuries, police said during a news conference early Sunday.
Authorities said they are investigating the motive for the shooting and cannot say at this time whether it was a hate attack.
They detailed that
the suspect used a "long rifle" and opened fire just after entering the club.
“We have numerous people who were transported to multiple local hospitals in ambulances and patrol cars.
The hospitals are helping us notify the families of the injured,” said Colorado Springs Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Pamela Castro.
Although Colorado has been popularly known for years as the “hate state” toward LGBTQ people, after voters approved a proposal in 1992 to ban anti-discrimination ordinances, the state has made great strides in rights for this community. .
Coorado formally recognized same-sex marriage in 2014, a year before the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the country.
In 2019, Governor Polis signed a law that prohibits the use of therapies that seek to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors and another that makes it easier for transgender people to update their gender on birth certificates and other documents.
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Polis, who won re-election earlier this month, was part of the so-called "rainbow wave" in 2018, when a record number of LGBTQ Americans ran in that year's midterm elections.
He is the second LGBTQ person elected to govern a state, after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat who identifies as bisexual, was first elected in a special election in 2016.