A 22-year-old suspect used a 'long rifle' and immediately began shooting when he entered a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs.
Police have confirmed suspect Anderson Aldrich is in custody after five revellers were killed and another 25 injured after a gunman opened fire at Club Q at 11.57pm on Saturday.
Several of the wounded have suffered life-threatening injuries and are being treated in intensive care units.
Authorities received a report of a shooting at the gay club and responded within minutes Lieutenant Pamela Castro, of the Colorado Springs Police Department, said in a press conference.
Colorado Springs Police Department Chief Adrian Vasquez revealed “at least two heroic people" confronted the gunman and stopped the shooting.
The suspect, who was injured and later identified by police as Anderson Lee Aldrich, was apprehended just five minutes after officers first received a call about the shooting at Club Q.
A man with the same name and age was arrested in 2021 after his mother reported he threatened her with "a homemade bomb, multiple weapons and ammunition," according to authorities.
Two firearms, including a “long rifle,” were found at the scene, according to police.
Authorities initially said 18 people were injured in the shooting, however this has now been increased to 25.
Club Q, which is a gay and lesbian nightclub that features a “Drag Diva Drag Show” on Saturdays, posted a statement on Facebook which called it a "hate" attack.
It said: “Club Q is devastated by the senseless attack on our community.
“We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.”
President Joe Biden said that while the motive for the shootings was not yet clear, “we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years.”
He added: “Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often.
“We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate.”
The attack comes on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is observed annually on November 20 to memorialise anyone murdered as a result of transphobia.
The FBI confirmed it was providing assistance to Colorado Springs police - but said the police department was leading the investigation.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who became the first openly gay man in the United States to be elected governor in 2018, said the attack was “sickening.”
He said: “My heart breaks for the family and friends of those lost, injured, and traumatised in this horrific shooting. I have spoken with Mayor (John) Suthers and clarified that every state resource is available to local law enforcement in Colorado Springs.
“Colorado stands with our LGTBQ community and everyone impacted by this tragedy as we mourn.”
Representative-elect Eric Sorensen, who is Illinois' first openly gay congressman, tweeted that "we must use loud voices to stand up against hate.
"Our country must turn down the hateful rhetoric aimed at our LGBTQ community."
The shooting brought back memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people.
It occurred in a state that has experienced several notorious mass killings, including at Columbine High School in 1999, a cinema in suburban Denver in 2012 and at a Boulder supermarket last year.
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California said on Twitter he was "sickened and horrified" by the shooting, adding: "The LGBTQ+ community is once again the target of the most terrible violence.
"And devastating attacks like these will only become more common if we don't fight back.
"It must stop."
In June, 31 members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and charged with conspiracy to riot at a Pride event.
"Experts warned that extremist groups could see anti-gay rhetoric as a call to action.
The previous month, a fundamentalist Idaho pastor told his small Boise congregation that gay, lesbian and transgender people should be executed by the government, which lined up with similar sermons from a Texas fundamentalist pastor.
The violence is the sixth mass killing this month and comes in a year when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
