The latest on the Colorado Springs shooting:
- Five people are dead and 25 injured after a gunman entered Club Q, a Colorado Springs LGBTQ club, Saturday and began firing with a long rifle.
- The gunman is in custody after being subdued by at least two people inside the club.
- Police said a motive for the shooting remains unclear at this time.
- Club Q was hosting a “Drag Divas” show followed by a DJ night on Saturday the night before Trans Day of Remembrance. Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez called Club Q "a safe haven for our LGBTQ citizens."
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Colorado governor orders flags to be lowered in honor of shooting victims
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has ordered that flags on all public buildings across the state be lowered this week in honor of those who were killed in the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs on Saturday.
In a statement, his office said all flags should be lowered from sunrise Monday until sunset on Saturday to "honor and remember the victims of the horrific shooting."
"Flags will be lowered for 5 days to remember each of the 5 individuals who lost their lives in this senseless tragedy," his office said.
His office said a Pride flag would also be raised at the Colorado state capitol for the next five days.
New Colorado Springs residents had just discovered Club Q, community
New to Colorado Springs, Aeron Laney and Justin Godwin went to Club Q on Saturday evening for their first night out on the town, they said. The pair stayed for two hours to watch a drag show and left at 11:54 PM, a handful of minutes before the gunman entered, they added.
For Laney, who is bisexual, it was the first time ever going to an LGBTQ bar.
“It’s devastating,” Laney, 24, said, standing outside the bar on Sunday evening. “We thought we had found a new home and a community, and we were expecting to make new friends and making this a regular place to go where we could openly be ourselves and now it’s just gone — it’s just ripped away.”
They estimate that roughly three dozen people were at the bar when they left. With five dead and 25 others wounded, according to police, “We just keep thinking everyone we saw was a victim,” Laney said.
Survivors describe chaos and terror: ‘I was scared. I was trapped.’
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The music was pounding at the LGBTQ nightclub Club Q when a lone gunman walked in and started shooting, sending people scrambling for cover and leaving horror in his wake.
In interviews, people who survived the shooting described the terror they felt when the suspect starting firing bullets indiscriminately, killing five people and injuring 25 others.
Michael Anderson, a bartender at Club Q, recalled that he heard “a few popping sounds” and initially assumed someone inside the club might have been clapping.
“Then I looked up,” he said, “and I realized people were running.”
Mourners lay flowers, remember the dead outside Club Q
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Mourners gathered Sunday outside the shopping center that houses Club Q, laying flowers on the ground in remembrance of the victims.
The people who came to pay their respects lamented that even simple activities — like going out for a night of fun with friends — seem to have become unsafe.
“No matter where you go or who you’re with, you just have to catch out for your surroundings,” said Moana Aona, 20, a Colorado Springs resident.
“At this point, I don’t think it’s safe to go anywhere," Aona added.
Cheyenne Schulman, 20, a Colorado Springs resident who identifies as bisexual and uses she/her pronouns, decried the massacre as an assault on the LGBTQ community.
“I feel like I have to tell my mom I love her every time I leave the house because I don’t know if I’m going to come home,” Schulman said. “This is an attack on our community. ... We can’t even go outside anymore.”
Pulse foundation says anti-gay violence must end
The nonprofit organization established in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida in 2016 responded Sunday to the Colorado Springs attack, saying anti-gay violence in America must cease.
"We are deeply saddened and horrified by the mass shooting at the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs that killed five people," the organization, onePULSE Foundation, said. "Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the victims and their families, as well as the wounded and those affected by this tragedy."
The nonprofit thanked those inside the Colorado venue who helped to stop the shooting, and it expressed gratitude to first responders who ran toward the chaos.
"Violence directed at members of the LGBTQIA+ community must come to an end," it said.
The Florida attack ended with 49 dead and was one of the worst mass shootings in United States history.
OnePULSE Foundation is planning the National Pulse Memorial & Museum in Orlando as "a sanctuary of healing and a beacon of hope by memorializing the lives taken, the lives saved, and all the lives affected by the Pulse nightclub tragedy of June 12, 2016," according to a statement.
Club Q founder says gunman stormed in with a 'definite mission'
The lone gunman who opened fire at Club Q came in through the front door and appeared to be on a "definite mission" as he sprayed bullets indiscriminately, the founder of the club told NBC News.
Matthew Haynes, the founder of the LGBTQ-friendly club, said he believes the suspect "targeted" the establishment. Haynes described the gunman's demeanor in stark terms.
"The look on his face, the determination, that anger as he entered the building," he said. (Haynes said he could not provide extensive details on the attack because it is still under police investigation.)
Police have said a motive for the shooting remains unclear at this time.
Haynes told NBC News that he arrived at the club "6 to 8 minutes" after the shooting. "We were arriving as the first responders were arriving," he said.
Officials have said the suspect was detained roughly five minutes after the initial 911 calls.