The mayor of Colorado Springs on Monday said a weekend shooting at an LGBT nightclub that left five dead and 25 others injured “has all the trapping of a hate crime.”
Mayor John Suthers, a Republican, said police are still investigating a motive after the tragedy at Club Q late Saturday.
“It has all the trappings of a hate crime, but we need to look at social media, we need to look at all kinds of other information that we’re gathering from people that knew the individual before we make any definitive conclusions about a motivation,” Mr. Suthers told NBC’s “Today.” “But it certainly as I say has the trappings of a hate crime.”
Police accuse Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, of entering the nightclub and opening fire before clubgoers stopped him. The incident drew comparisons to the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people.
Mr. Suthers said the perpetrator in the Colorado Springs shooting was apparently subdued by a person at the nightclub who took a handgun away from the shooter and hit him with it to disable him.
“It’s an incredible act of heroism,” he said. “That act probably saved a lot of lives.”
Law enforcement is deciding whether the Colorado Springs shooting constitutes a hate crime.
The mayor described the nightclub as a well-managed fixture in the community that rarely needed any police help. He expects a “groundswell” of financial support for victims.
“We’re a community in mourning, but we’re a community that’s determined to make sure that the actions of a lone gunman don’t define our community,” Mr. Suthers said.
A suspect of the same name was tied to a bomb threat in Colorado Springs in 2021, though Mr. Suthers said he did not want to comment and get ahead of criminal filings and proceedings later Monday.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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