{O/C} A deadly shooting erupted overnight at a gay nightclub in Colorado.
Five people were killed and 25 others injured.
{Take SOT}
It was about 11:56 Saturday night when a horrendous shooting rampage engulfed the bustling club Q dedicated to the LGBTQ community.
{Soundbite}
Club Q. Active shooter. All units respond.
{VO}
Police then surrounded the club and took the gunman into custody.
The suspect was identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich.
Aldrich was reportedly armed with an AR-15 style semiautomatic gun.
A handgun and additional ammunition magazines were also retrieved.
Before police arrived at midnight, the perpetrator had already gunned down 10 clubgoers.
Five of them died.
{Soundbite}
ADRIAN VASQUEZ, Colorado Springs Police Department Chief:
Initial evidence and interviews indicate that the suspect entered club Q and immediately began shooting at people inside, as he moved further into the club.
{VO}
Among the twenty-five wounded, at least seven were in critical condition.
Some suffered injuries while trying to flee, but it's unclear if all of the injured were shot.
The shooter's reign of terror ended when "the tough got going."
{Soundbite}
While the suspect was inside of the club, at least two heroic people inside the club confronted and fought with the suspect, and were able to stop the suspect from continuing to kill and harm others.
{VO}
A manhunt is also underway for possible accomplices and police are working to establish a motive.
22-year-old Aldrich had been arrested in 2021 after threatening his mother with a homemade bomb and other weapons.
Witnesses recounted the gripping horror.
{Soundbite}
JOSHUA THURMAN, Witness:
I was on the dance floor at the time the shooting started.
I heard another round of shots and then I saw the fire, the flash from the muzzle of the gun and I ran to the dressing room.
Our community is shattered.
This is the only LGBTQIA+ space we have in the city of Colorado Springs.
{VO}
On its Facebook page, Club Q called the shooting a "hate attack."
President Biden called it a senseless attack and offered his condolences.
In a statement the state's and the country's first openly gay governor Jared Polis condemned the attack as "horrific, sickening and devastating."
The shooting was eerily reminiscent of the 2016 gay nightclub shooting in Orlando that claimed 29 lives.
It ironically marred the Transgender Awareness Week, and Sunday's International Transgender Day of Remembrance, when people mourn transgender individuals killed in violence.
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