The event of Fierro, where Polis and the mayor of Colorado Springs did not make an appearance either, paradigm of a slogan that Fierro has been repeating since the shooting: “Be kind, hug, take care of your neighbor. “
The hugs seemed contagious. Fierro hugged Wyatt Kent, a drag queen whose 23rd birthday was celebrated the night of filming, and chatted with her family.
COLORADO SPRINGS SHOOTING: ARMY VETERAN TALKS ABOUT DISARMING Q CLUB GUNMAN, SAYS “I TRIED TO FINISH IT”
Kent, whose trail call is Potted Plant, still wobbles at night horrible. Kent recalled the gunshots, then collapsed under Kelly Loving, who had been shot in the chest. Shaking his hand as Siri was asked to call 911, Kent then held Loving’s. head, repeating “one more breath, just one more breath” before paramedics arrived.
Loving’s chest bleeding “like a hole in an air mattress,” Kent said, pausing and looking away. Loving among the five dead, along with Daniel Aston, with whom Kent is in a relationship. Aston had left strawberries, roses and a card for Kent’s birthday before he killed.
Kent, who had written 119 poems about Aston, became utterly insensitive in the following days. They then began connecting with Aston’s circle of family and friends, the ones who “enjoyed it, heal it,” they said.
The Club Q network has been an unbreakable network, Kent said, a network that has remained healing since the tragedy.
“If I pour into others, they pour into me,” Kent said, “and that’s what this network has done. “
Colorado Springs’ broader network is also supporting survivors. At his brewery, Fierro earned $50,000 from a credit union.
“I’ve never had so much cash in my life,” said an astonished Fierro, who repeated that “everyone at (Club Q) is a hero. “
Matt Gendron, head of engagement at Ent Credit Union who worked at Club Q that night, said Fierro “saved the lives of many people by adding one of our family circle members. “
Earlier that day, Polis walked solemnly along a row of flowers, crosses and posters with the images and names of the sick outside Club Q in Colorado Springs.
At the end, he took a piece of pink chalk, drew a center and wrote “We remember” on the sidewalk in front of the monument, which had been covered with tarps to protect it from the snow until it arrived.
“Five other people were lost forever. We celebrate their lives. We mourn them,” Polis said, speaking to reporters at the site.
Polis, who spoke earlier in the day with relatives of the dead and wounded, wore a gay pride ribbon pinned to the zipper of his baggy jacket. The Democrat, who became the first unabashedly gay man elected governor in the U. S. In 2018, he said he was referring to rhetoric linking other transgender people to grooming and pedophilia and feared it would simply “inspire action against the LGBTQ community. “
COLORADO SPRINGS SHOOTING: ARMY VETERAN TALKS ABOUT DISARMING Q CLUB GUNMAN, SAYS “I TRIED TO FINISH IT”
But he was also positive about the future of the club, a sanctuary for the LGBTQ network in the predominantly conservative city of 480,000, located about 70 miles south of Denver.
“Club Q will come back and they will come back,” he said.
The assailant opened fire on Nov. 19 with a semiautomatic rifle at the gay nightclub before being subdued by shoppers and arrested by police who arrived within minutes, the government said.
The reason remains the investigation and one user is in custody.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, held without bail on suspicion of murder and hate crimes. Aldrich arrested at the club after being arrested and beaten by customers.
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Hate crime charges would require proving that the shooter was motivated through bias, as opposed to the victims’ genuine or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
Prosecutors have yet to record formal fees opposing Aldrich, who is binary and uses pronouns them, according to court documents from his lawyers.
Aldrich was arrested last year after a relative reported that Aldrich threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons, according to authorities.
A video of the doorbell received via The Associated Press Aldrich arriving at his mother’s front door with a large black bag on the day of the 2021 bomb threat, telling her police were nearby and adding, “This is where I am. I’m dying today. “
Authorities at the time said no explosives were found.