UNITED STATES: According to records made public on Monday afternoon, the suspect in a weekend shooting at an LBGTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs will be charged with five counts of murder and five additional hate crime counts of causing injury with “biased motivation.”
The information was released as police reported that 18 people had been hurt in the Saturday night shooting spree at Club Q and that Anderson Lee Aldrich, the alleged shooter, was still being held at a nearby hospital.
The attack had “the trappings of a hate crime,” according to Colorado Springs mayor John Suthers, who also described the “tragic darkness” that had descended on the neighbourhood earlier.
Aldrich is accused of five counts of murder and five counts of committing a felony motivated by bias that resulted in bodily harm, according to online court records that were accessed on Monday.
A handgun and other ammo magazines were found in addition to the semiautomatic AR-15-style weapon the suspect allegedly used in the attack on Saturday night, according to a law enforcement official.
The official spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he was unable to discuss the specifics of the investigation publicly. When the culprit was approached by a club patron regarded by witnesses as a hero, the attack came to an end. According to Haynes, a customer assisted in containing the shooter, who was said to be wearing full body armor, until the police arrived.
By Monday afternoon, four of the five victims had been identified by relatives and friends. They included Daniel Aston, 28, and Derrick Rump, 38, all bartenders at Club Q, as well as Kelly Loving, 40, and Ashley Paugh, 35. Paugh had an 11-year-old kid and was in Colorado Springs with a friend.
According to the police, among the injured, 17 were hospitalised for gunshot wounds, and one more had injuries unrelated to using firearms.
The first 911 call came in at 11:56 p.m. on Saturday, according to Lt. Pamela Castro, a police department spokesperson, and officers arrived on the scene in less than four minutes.
She said that the suspect was apprehended two minutes after midnight and that two firearms, among them an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, were found.
Suthers also commended the clubgoers for stopping the shooter and averting more casualties.
Also Read: 5 Killed, 25 Injured in Shooting at LGBTQ Nightclub in Colorado
