(Colorado Springs) The author of the LGBTQ + club shooting in Colorado Springs, in the western United States, which killed five people overnight from Saturday to Sunday, was arrested by two “heroes”, according to the authorities, who did not give further details on his motives.
After entering Club Q and beginning to fire into the crowd with an assault rifle, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich was overpowered by two patrons.
The authorities confirmed during a press conference on Monday evening the identity of these two saviors, described as “heroes”: Richard Fierro and Thomas James.
“I’ve never met someone who has shown so much heroism and who remains so humble,” Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said of Mr. Fierro.
This 45-year-old former soldier told the New York Times having grabbed the shooter from behind as he headed for the terrace, where customers had taken refuge. Once the shooter was on the ground, Richard Fierro jumped on him. “I took his gun in his hand and started hitting him on the head, over and over. »
“I don’t know exactly what I did, I just went into fight mode,” he said. “I just knew I had to kill this guy before he killed us. »
Five people died in the shooting and no less than 17 were injured by bullets, said the police, who counted another injured and “victims without visible injuries”.
Flowers and candles
The shooter, arrested when the police arrived on site, is still hospitalized, authorities said Monday evening. He is expected to appear before a judge via video within days of being released from the hospital, according to the county prosecutor in El Paso, where Colorado Springs is located.
He is already being held without the possibility of bail, said prosecutor Michael Allen, who also indicated that the investigation was continuing and would “probably last some time”.
Anderson Lee Aldrich has not yet been charged, but could face charges including murder and hate crimes. He faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
“Hate crime” in the United States refers to an act directed against a targeted person because of elements of their identity such as race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or disability. Considered an aggravated federal offence, it carries harsher sentences.
Monday evening, hundreds of people gathered in a park in Colorado Springs, noted an AFP journalist, for a vigil in tribute to the victims illuminated by candles.
PHOTO DAVID ZALUBOWSKI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Flowers, candles, balloons and messages were placed at the scene of the tragedy.
Speakers praised the resilience of the LGBTQ+ community in this city at the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, and insisted that they would not be intimidated by the violence.
It was shortly before midnight, just after a drag queen show that marked Transgender Remembrance Day, dedicated to victims of transphobic violence and celebrated internationally on November 20, that horror entered Club Q.
“I looked up and saw the shadow of a tall person holding a gun,” bartender Michael Anderson told AFP. “Burst after burst. It was absolutely terrifying. »
After a handful of minutes of incredible violence, the intervention of MM. Fierro and James end the carnage.
Incomprehension
The questions now remain: An individual of the same name and about the same age last year threatened his mother with a pipe bomb and multiple weapons, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Is it the shooter? Could the police have avoided the massacre? Monday evening, they invoked the need for discretion linked to the investigation to rule out questions from journalists.
The attack comes six years after the worst mass murder in the LGBTQ+ community in the United States when an American of Afghan descent killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
“When politicians and pundits continue to circulate clichés, insults and misinformation about the trans and LGBTQ+ community, here is the result,” Brianna Titone, the first transgender legislator elected to the Colorado parliament, lambasted on Sunday.
This umpteenth killing also illustrates the problem of the circulation of firearms in large numbers in the country: 601 mass shootings have been recorded in the United States since the beginning of 2022, according to the organization Gun Violence Archive.