Tag Archives: mass murder

US

Monterey Park, California massacre: The gunman is dead, but the motive remains a mystery

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CNN
 — 

It’s still not clear why a 72-year-old man unleashed a hailstorm of bullets on revelers celebrating Lunar New Year – killing 10 people, wounding 10 others and shattering the majority-Asian American city of Monterey Park, California.

And with the gunman, Huu Can Tran, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the answer may never be known.

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But while mourners grieve unfathomable tragedy on what should have been the most auspicious day for many Asian Americans, authorities credit “heroes” for helping prevent even more carnage after yet another mass shooting in America.

Here’s the latest on the investigation into the Saturday night massacre:

• Tran fatally shot himself midday Sunday in the nearby city of Torrance as police closed in on his vehicle – a white van that matched one they were looking for – police said.

• Tran had gunned down 20 people at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park before driving to another dance hall in nearby Alhambra, where he brandished a semi-automatic weapon, investigators said.

• Two people at the Alhambra dance hall wrestled the weapon away from the gunman, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. “The suspect went to the Alhambra location after he conducted the shooting (in Monterey Park), and he was disarmed by two community members who I consider to be heroes,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. “They saved lives. This could’ve been much worse.”

• The weapon was a Cobray M11 9 mm semi-automatic weapon, a law enforcement official told CNN. It’s designed to take 30-round magazines that allow for rapid fire without having to frequently change magazines. The weapon was traced to the suspect, giving authorities his name and description.

• Investigators found “several pieces of evidence” in Tran’s white van linking him to the Monterey Park and Alhambra dance studios, the sheriff said, without giving further details. They also found a handgun, Luna said.

• Among those slain were two women – My Nhan, 65, and Lilan Li, 63 – the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Monday. Nine of the 10 victims were in their 60s or 70s, and all – five men and five women – were over 50. Authorities are working to identify the others and notify loved ones.

• The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department got a search warrant for Tran’s home in the senior community about 80 miles east of Monterey Park – The Lakes at Hemet West – a Hemet Police spokesperson confirmed.

• The massacre in Monterey Park marks one of at least 36 mass shootings in the US so far this month.

When police arrived at the Monterey Park dance studio, “they came across a scene that none of them had been prepared for,” city police chief Scott Wiese said. The killer had inflicted “extensive” carnage before fleeing the scene.

A few miles away in Alhambra, Brandon Tsay was working the ticket office of the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, unaware of the massacre. Then, the same gunman entered the business his family had owned for three generations.

“From his body language, his facial expression, his eyes, he was looking for people,” Tsay told The New York Times.

“He was looking at me and looking around, not hiding that he was trying to do harm,” he said. “His eyes were menacing.”

The gunman pointed a semi-automatic weapon at Tsay – the first gun he had seen in real life – he told the Times.

“My heart sank,” he said, “I knew I was going to die.”

Tsay struggled with the man for about a minute and a half and eventually wrestled the gun from him when the man took his hand off it, he told the Times.

“That moment, it was primal instinct,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Once Tsay gained control of the gun, he told the Times, he pointed it back at the suspect and yelled for him to “get the hell out of here.”

Tran had once been a familiar face at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where he gave informal dance lessons, three people who knew him told CNN. But it’s not clear how often he visited in recent years, if at all.

He even met his ex-wife there about two decades ago after he saw her at a dance, introduced himself and offered her free lessons, the ex-wife said.

Tran worked as a truck driver at times, his ex-wife said. He was an immigrant from China, according to a copy of his marriage license she showed to CNN.

The two married soon after they met, according to the ex-wife, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the case.

And Tran had a hot temper, his ex-wife and others said.

While he was never violent to her, the ex-wife said, Tran would get upset if she missed a step dancing because he felt it made him look bad.

Tran filed for divorce in late 2005, and a judge approved the divorce the following year, Los Angeles court records show.

Another longtime acquaintance of Tran also remembered him as a regular patron of the dance studio. The friend, who also asked not to be named, was close to Tran in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when he said Tran would come to the dance studio “almost every night” from his home in nearby San Gabriel.

At that time, Tran often complained that the instructors at the dance hall didn’t like him and said “evil things about him,” the friend recalled. He said Tran was “hostile to a lot of people there.”

More generally, Tran was easily irritated, complained a lot and didn’t seem to trust people, the friend said.

Tran’s friend was “totally shocked” when he heard about the shooting, he said, noting he hadn’t seen Tran in several years.

“I know lots of people, and if they go to Star studio, they frequent there,” the friend said. He said he was “worried maybe I know some of” the shooting victims.

Despite a surge of deadly attacks and harassment against Asian Americans throughout the pandemic, Saturday’s attack shocked many in Monterey Park – where about 65% of residents are of Asian descent and some 100,000 people from across Southern California typically turn out for Lunar New Year celebrations.

“I’ve lived here for 37 years, and I could never have imagined such a terrible thing happening,” Rep. Judy Chu, who represents Monterey Park in Congress, told CNN on Sunday.

“This is a tight-knit community and it has been very peaceful all these years. So that’s why it is even more shattering to have this happen.”

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Business

MGM Resorts sells land on Las Vegas Strip where 2017 mass shooting took place

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CNN
 — 

The land on the Las Vegas Strip where the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting took place has been sold, the company that owned the land said.

The sale, finalized on Friday, was for land across from The Luxor hotel known as the Village property and does not include a plot of land where a memorial is slated to go, MGM Resorts International said in a letter that was distributed to employees announcing the sale and its details.

“In 2021, we were honored to commit to donating a portion of the land to Clark County to house the permanent memorial honoring the victims and heroes of 1 October,” MGM Resorts CEO & President Bill Hornbuckle said in the letter.

On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock shot into a crowd of concertgoers, killing 58 people and injuring more than 500. The FBI has since concluded its investigation of the attack, without finding a clear motive.

Hornbuckle acknowledged that having a permanent memorial “is essential to our community’s healing, and we’ll continue working with and supporting the county as they move forward in the development and construction process.

“We know the importance this location holds to so many and have always put tremendous thought into every consideration involving the site,” Hornbuckle said. “This is no exception.”

The remaining portion of the Village property has been sold to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, according to the letter.

“The Three Affiliated Tribes have demonstrated that they care about our community, its future and, of course, its past. I’d like to thank them for their commitment to the community and wish them the best moving forward,” Hornbuckle said. “They will announce their plans for the space on a future date.”

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US

State documents appear to indicate Uvalde Sheriff Nolasco has not completed active shooter training

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Uvalde, Texas
CNN
 — 

Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco does not appear to have completed an active shooter training course, according to documents CNN obtained Monday from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the regulatory agency for peace officers in Texas.

The information comes on the heels of a contentious Uvalde County Commission meeting, during which Richard Carter, an attorney with expertise in police actions, presented the results of an independent review – which the county hired him to conduct – of the Sheriff’s Office policies at the time of the Robb Elementary School massacre.

According to Carter, the sheriff’s office did not have an active shooter policy on May 24, when a teenaged gunman with a semi-automatic rifle stormed the school and killed 19 students and two teachers.

Active shooter training is not required by county or state rules for people who aren’t school-based law enforcement officers. And an active shooter response policy is not required by Texas law of law enforcement agencies, according to the report.

County commissioners met behind closed doors for more than 90 minutes to review the report and meet with victims’ family members. Community members called for Nolasco’s ouster at the meeting following CNN’s reporting last week about his failure to mount a response at the school and his failure to share critical information about the shooter.

Nolasco was one of the senior law enforcement officials on the scene of the massacre.

After the meeting, Carter also appeared to indicate Nolasco hadn’t received active shooter training.

“He has not taken the course that his officers – all but three of his officers – have. He plans on doing that in the immediate future,” Carter said. “What I understood was, he wanted to make sure that all of his people that might go out were trained,” before he received his own training.

In an email to CNN that included Nolasco’s records, law enforcement commission spokesperson Gretchen Grigsby said that “active shooter training is only required for school-based law enforcement officers as part of a one-time certification,” but she expected the topic would be a subject of discussion during the next legislative session.

CNN has reached out to Nolasco about the contents of the report but has not received a response.

CNN has also reached back out to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to clarify the contents of Nolasco’s training history, and has not received a response.

The conclusion of Carter’s review comes after months of reporting by CNN about the law enforcement response to the shooting, including that Nolasco had vital information about the shooter that was not shared as the incident unfolded. It was just the latest revelation of senior law enforcement officers not taking command or following protocol to stop an active shooter and get swift treatment to victims.

Carter’s inquiry, which was conducted over about two months, dealt strictly with the sheriff’s office’s policies, he said Monday.

The office has since adopted an active shooter policy, Carter said during the public portion of Monday’s meeting.

But at the time of the shooting – the worst at a K-12 school in the US in nearly a decade – its handbook only defined “active shooter,” Carter said. And while there were “portions that dealt with critical incidences and how officers would respond,” it did not constitute an active shooter policy, he added.

Whether the sheriff’s office had an active shooter policy, however, is “no excuse for what happened” the day of the shooting, one community member said in a public comment portion of the meeting Monday.

“Our officers in Uvalde County, including the city, school, and county, don’t live under a rock,” Diana Olvedo-Karau said. “Active shooter incidents happen across our nation all too often… so to step back and give the impression that because there was no policy there’s no accountability, is unacceptable, inexcusable, and shameful.”

Carter did not examine the actions of the agency’s personnel on the scene of the shooting, he said, which, along with the broader law enforcement response, have been highly scrutinized.

The grandmother of shooting victim Amerie Jo Garza said she was in “total shock” the Sheriff’s Office didn’t have an active shooter policy in place.

“I could not believe that with all the mass shootings that have taken place, just in Texas alone, that there was no policy in place. It was a total shock,” Berlinda Irene Arreola said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.

Arreola said it was difficult seeing Mariano Pargas, acting Uvalde police chief on the day of the shooting, at the meeting.

“It was very hard, and It was very sad,” she said of Pargas, who has since resigned but is still a county commissioner.

Arreola said that she believes he had plenty of time to take control of the incident but that “instead he ran in the other direction.”

“So, seeing him for the first time was very, very hurtful,” she said.

Arreola said the upcoming holidays are going to be a difficult time for her family without Amerie.

“My son and my daughter-in-law just can’t keep it together to be able to enjoy the holidays. So it’s going to be different, definitely different this year and very sad. Very sad,” she said.

In the months since the shooting, criticism of law enforcement’s response has focused on its failure to follow the main tenets of post-Columbine policies to immediately take down an active shooter. Instead, acting on the early and erroneous assessment that the gunman was barricaded, as opposed to an active shooter with his victims surrounding him inside two adjoining classrooms, police waited 77 minutes before confronting him.

Much of the initial criticism focused on Uvalde School Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who had said he never considered himself in charge the day of the shooting. He was ultimately fired in August.

In the months since the shooting, however, it’s become clear the failures that day went far beyond the scope of the small school police force. According to a preliminary report by a Texas House of Representatives investigative committee, 376 officers from local, state and federal agencies were on the scene of the massacre.

Pargas, who remains an elected county commissioner, resigned from the police department after CNN reported he knew children needed rescuing and did not organize help.

Separately, a Texas Ranger and a state police captain are under review for their actions or inaction the day of the shooting, and a state police sergeant was terminated. Another officer who quit the state police force and took a job with the Uvalde school district was also fired after CNN reported she was under investigation for her actions during the shooting.



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US

Virginia Walmart shooting: Authorities identify the youngest of 6 victims in deadly mass shooting in Chesapeake

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CNN
 — 

The youngest victim in this week’s mass shooting inside a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, is a 16-year-old employee who reportedly used his first paycheck to buy his mother a gift before he was killed two days ahead of Thanksgiving.

Fernando Chavez-Barron, along with five other coworkers, was shot and killed Tuesday night when a manager opened fire in an employee break room during a meeting before killing himself, according to a social media post from the city of Chesapeake that publicly identified the teen on Friday.

As authorities work to learn more about the gunman, including publicly releasing a note found on his phone after the shooting, friends of the 16-year-old killed are in mourning.

Those who knew Fernando told CNN affiliate WTKR that he had just started working at Walmart and used his first paycheck to purchase a gift for his mother.

A friend of Fernando’s, Joshua Trejo-Alvarado, said he’s still in disbelief that he’s gone.

“I’m out of words, and speechless that it was him,” Trejo-Alvarado told WTKR. “I was hoping everything was a dream until today. I wish he was still standing here with me. I prayed yesterday night with my whole family for him. We got flowers and candles at home for him, too.”

Trejo-Alvarado texted and called Fernando but didn’t receive a response, he said. Later, he called his friend’s brother, who told him Fernando didn’t survive, WTKR reported.

“He would always be outgoing with anybody he met. He was nice,” Trejo-Alvarado said.

Five others at the Walmart were killed, including Randy Blevins, 70, Lorenzo Gamble, 43, Tyneka Johnson, 22, Brian Pendleton, 38, and Kellie Pyle, 52.

On Thanksgiving Day, the community gathered at a growing makeshift memorial outside the store to pay respects for the lives lost in yet another mass shooting that turned a staple of daily life into a gruesome crime scene. Two people were still hospitalized, with one in critical condition, the city said Thursday.

In honor of the victims, Chesapeake city officials are planning a vigil Monday at 6 p.m. in City Park.

Also on Monday, city council leaders will hold a special meeting confirming an emergency declaration that “will free up funding to support recovery” after the shooting, according to the city’s Twitter account Friday. The post did not specify how the funding would be used.

Since the shooting, authorities have been trying to determine a motive for the sudden eruption of gunfire in a workplace two days before Thanksgiving. Officials on Friday released details of writings from the shooter’s phone obtained after the tragedy.

The writings – titled “Death note” – found on the shooter’s phone contained grievances against people in his life, including some coworkers, according to the city’s Twitter account Friday.

The note mentions God, the holy spirit and how the author felt he was mocked by his “associates” – a job title Walmart uses for some of its employees.

“The associates gave me evil twisted grins, mocked me and celebrated my down fall the last day. That’s why they suffer the same fate as me,” the note says.

“I wish I could have saved everyone from myself,” the note continues. “My God forgive me for what I’m going to do.”

The city released the note in a series of tweets, redacting the names of those mentioned. None of the victims in the shooting were among the redacted names, police said.

Asked whether the gunman had complained about his colleagues, a statement from Walmart said, “There is nothing that can justify taking innocent lives. Our focus continues to be on the families who are grieving and supporting our associates through this difficult time.”

The gun used to carry out the killings is a 9 mm weapon, which the gunman legally purchased the day of the shooting, the city said.

A search of the gunman’s home turned up a box of ammunition and “various items in reference to the 9 mm handgun (box, receipt, other paperwork),” the city said in a tweet.

The shooter, who has been identified as 31-year-old Andre Bing, has been described by coworkers as someone who previously displayed odd and threatening behavior.

Shaundrayia Reese, who worked with Bing from 2015 to 2018, described him as a loner.

“He was always saying the government was watching him. He didn’t like social media and he kept black tape on his phone camera. Everyone always thought something was wrong with him,” Reese said.

Another former coworker, Joshua Johnson, worked at Walmart until 2019 and said Bing had made threats.

“He said if he ever got fired from his job he would retaliate and people would remember who he was,” Johnson said.

Reese and Johnson said they didn’t report any concerns about Bing’s behavior to management.

Employees at the Walmart had just clocked in for their overnight shift Tuesday when they saw a manager standing in the doorway, pointing a gun at them in the break room. But the disturbing image hadn’t set in for some employees, including Briana Tyler, who had just been hired at the store.

“It still hadn’t really kicked in that it was real. Because I was thinking it was like a simulation type of thing, like this is what we do if we have an active shooter,” Tyler told CNN. “And the reason why I think it was that was because I recognized his face.”

But then reality set in when she saw her colleagues getting shot.

“He just had a blank stare on his face and he just literally just looked around the room and just shot and there were people just dropping to the floor,” Tyler said. “Everybody was screaming, gasping. He just walked away after that and just continued throughout the store and just kept shooting.”

Hear what the Walmart shooter told this survivor

As the shooter walked away from the break room, employee Jessie Wilczewski hid under a table, she told CNN. She described seeing some of her coworkers on the floor or lying on chairs – some likely dead.

When the shooter returned to the break room, he told her to get out from under the table, Wilczewski said.

“He said, ‘Jessie, go home,’” said Wilczewski, who’s a mother to a 15-month-old child.

As she got up and started to leave, she tried not to look at her coworkers – but the sound of blood hitting the floor haunts her, she said.

“The sound of the droplets, da-da-da-da, it replays and replays and replays,” she told CNN earlier this week. “Of how much blood was coming off the different chairs – it was making a rhythm. And it was one of the most disturbing things – I will, I think, will never let go of that.”

Wilczewski said the trauma she witnessed stuck with her after fleeing.

“Never, ever in my life would I ever wish this upon anybody,” Wilczewski said. “And it’s horrible because it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t stop replaying when you leave the scene. It doesn’t stop hurting as much. It doesn’t stop, and it sucks because you really want it to. You just want that little bit of – that you had before all this.”



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US

Virginia Walmart shooting: Victims remain hospitalized days after a mass shooting in a Virginia Walmart left 6 employees dead

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CNN
 — 

As authorities investigate this week’s mass shooting inside a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, at least two employees remained hospitalized after a manager killed six coworkers before taking his own life.

The shooting on Tuesday night – two days before Thanksgiving – began minutes after 10 p.m. inside the employee break room, where some workers were getting ready to start their overnight shift.

In addition to the six employees who did not survive, others continue to receive medical treatment.

One victim was hospitalized in critical condition on Thanksgiving Day, while another was in “fair/improving condition,” Chesapeake city officials said in a tweet Thursday. Another victim was released Wednesday, a Sentara Norfolk General Hospital spokesperson told CNN.

“On this Thanksgiving, we are extra thankful for our community and we are thinking of every victim of the Walmart shooting and their family members,” Chesapeake city officials said online.

“Today we are focused only of those hurt by Tuesday’s tragic event, but the police investigation continues,” officials said, adding that additional information will be provided Friday.

The people killed are Randy Blevins, 70, Lorenzo Gamble, 43, Tyneka Johnson, 22, Brian Pendleton, 38, Kellie Pyle, 52, and a 16-year-old boy, who’s not being named because he’s a minor, according to authorities.

As police work to determine a motive for one of at least three mass shootings in Virginia this month, Chesapeake officials have announced a vigil for victims scheduled for Monday evening at City Park.

“Chesapeake is a tightknit community and we are all shaken,” Mayor Rick West said in a message posted online earlier this week. “Together, we will support each other throughout this time.”

The tragedy, which came as many in the community were preparing to spend the holiday with family and friends, has unleashed an outburst of grief and trauma over the loss of loved ones in yet another mass shooting in the US.

Another Virginia community has also been enduring the pain of lives lost to gun violence. About 170 miles west of Chesapeake, a 22-year-old student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville has been arrested and charged after opening fire on fellow students on November 13, killing three of them on a bus returning to campus from a field trip to Washington, DC.

Grief has also permeated a Colorado community last weekend, when a 22-year-old suspect shot and killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, injuring 19 others, authorities said.

These shootings, among many others, have put the US on an ominous track of making 2022 the second-highest year for mass shootings on record, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit that began tracking the instances in 2014.

The shooting in Chesapeake this week erupted suddenly, with witnesses saying they were in shock and disbelief when they saw the gunman pointing a firearm at them.

Walmart employee Kevin Harper said the shooter entered the break room and immediately began firing.

“He came in there and just started spraying,” Harper said in a video on social media.

The gunman has been identified as Andre Bing, who was working as overnight “team lead.” The 31-year-old had been working for Walmart since 2010, the company said. Authorities have said he had one semi-automatic handgun and several ammunition magazines.

Two slain victims and the shooter were found in the break room, another victim was found at the front of the store, and three others died at the hospital, Chesapeake city officials said.

Jessie Wilczewski, who was recently hired, told CNN she was in a regularly scheduled meeting when the shooting began.

At first, it “didn’t register as real,” she said, until the sound of the shots reverberated through her chest.

Wilczewski hid under a table as the gunman walked down a nearby hallway. She could see some of her coworkers on the floor or lying on chairs – all still and some likely dead, she said. She stayed because she didn’t want to leave them alone.

“I could have ran out that door … and I stayed. I stayed so they wouldn’t be alone in their last moments,” Wilczewski said in a message to the families of two victims.

When the shooter returned to the break room, Wilczewski said, he told her to get out from under the table and go home.

“I had to touch the door which was covered (in blood),” she said. “I just remember gripping my bag and thinking, ‘If he’s going to shoot me in the back – well, he’s going to have to try really hard cause I’m running,’ and I booked it. … and I didn’t stop until I got to my car and then I had a meltdown.”

Briana Tyler, also a newly hired employee, said she saw bullets flying just inches from her face.

“All of a sudden you just hear pa pa pa pa pa pa pa,” Tyler said. “There were people just dropping to the floor,” she said. “Everybody was screaming, gasping, and yeah, he just walked away after that and just continued throughout the store and just kept shooting.

Beyond the shooting in Chesapeake this week, gun violence has turned many ordinary places into crime scenes around the country – from schools and supermarkets to hospitals and malls.

Brett Cross, whose nephew Uziyah Garcia was killed in a school massacre in Texas this year, described a deep sense of loss without the 10-year-old boy this holiday season.

A gunman had opened fire inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in May, killing 19 fourth-grade students and their two teachers before authorities shot him dead.

“6 months since our world was shattered, and I’m supposed to ‘celebrate the holidays,’” Cross wrote in a social media post on Thanksgiving Day. “How do you celebrate when your devastated. How do you give thanks, when you have nothing left to give. How do you fake it and smile when you wake up crying.”

In 2018, a former student killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg who was killed in that shooting, said there’s more work to be done in the fight against gun violence.

“Today we celebrate Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, many families will do so with an empty seat at the table because of gun violence,” Guttenberg wrote in a social media post on Thanksgiving.

Nicole Hockley lost her 6-year-old son, Dylan, in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults in 2012.

“My life had been thrown into sadness and turmoil. I felt like I was at the bottom of a gigantic hole that I could never climb out of. I didn’t know how to help myself, never mind those I loved,” Hockley wrote online in a Thanksgiving message.

“But in the weeks and months that followed, and with the support of those around me, I found a renewed sense of purpose. To keep other children and families from enduring the same fate.”



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US

Walmart mass shooting: The motive behind the attack in Chesapeake, Virginia, is unclear

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CNN
 — 

After an ordinary workday turned deadly at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, survivors and investigators are spending the Thanksgiving holiday questioning the motive of an employee who opened fire on coworkers, killing six before fatally turning the gun on himself.

Employees were preparing for an overnight shift when a manager opened fire with a handgun in the break room just after 10 p.m., officials said.

Authorities identified the people killed as Randy Blevins, 70, Lorenzo Gamble, 43, Tyneka Johnson, 22, Brian Pendleton, 38, Kellie Pyle, 52, and a 16-year-old boy, who’s not being named because he’s a minor.

Two people injured in the shooting remained hospitalized in critical condition on Thanksgiving, and one injured victim was discharged Wednesday, a Sentara Norfolk General Hospital spokesperson said.

“I know this community and I know it well, and I know that we will come together and lend a helping hand to the victims’ families,” Chesapeake Mayor Rick West said Wednesday in a video message.

The shooting, yet another example of how horrific gun violence upends American life in the most conventional settings, has left many grieving the loss of loved ones and survivors traumatized from what they witnessed. As the long journey of processing those emotions begins, questions on what could have led to the killings linger.

Donya Prioleau was inside the employee break room when the shooter began firing at coworkers, she said.

“We don’t know what made him do this,” Prioleau said. “None of us can understand why it happened.”

The gunman was identified as Andre Bing, who was working as overnight “team lead.” The 31-year-old had been working for Walmart since 2010, the company said. Authorities have said he had one semi-automatic handgun and several ammunition magazines.

Bing shot three of Prioleau’s friends “before I took off running. Half of us didn’t believe it was real until some of us saw all the blood on the floor,” she said.

Two slain victims and the shooter were found in the break room, while another was found at the front of the store, Chesapeake city officials said, and three others died at the hospital. Officials are trying to determine the exact number of injuries as some people may have taken themselves to hospitals.

The mayor plans to hold a vigil Monday evening at City Park, according to a tweet from the city.

“Today we are focused only of those hurt by Tuesday’s tragic event, but the police investigation continues and we expect to have additional information available tomorrow,” officials also tweeted Thursday.

A motive for the shooting remained unclear Wednesday, Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky said.

Tuesday’s violence was at least the third mass shooting in Virginia this month, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and comes amid the backdrop of grief many people around the country are enduring this Thanksgiving as loved ones were lost or wounded in shootings.

Just 170 miles west of Chesapeake, a 22-year-old student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville allegedly opened fire on fellow students November 13, killing three of them on a bus returning to campus from a field trip to Washington, DC.

Over the weekend, a 22-year-old shot and killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and injured 19 others, authorities said. And six months ago Thursday, a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 students and two teachers, a tragedy in which victims are still seeking answers.

“How do you celebrate when your devastated. How do you give thanks, when you have nothing left to give. How do you fake it and smile when you wake up crying,” Brett Cross wrote Thursday of his nephew, Uziyah Garcia, who was killed in Uvalde.

Overall, the US has suffered more than 600 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Both the nonprofit and CNN define mass shootings as those in which four or more people are shot, not including the assailant.

Speaking to the epidemic, former US Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, tweeted a Thanksgiving Eve plea for reforms: “We cannot continue to be the nation of gun violence and mass shootings. We cannot live like this. We must act.”

In Chesapeake, the horror began less than an hour before the store was set to close after a busy holiday shopping day.

Jessie Wilczewski, who was recently hired, told CNN she was in a regularly scheduled meeting in the break room when she saw the shooter in the doorway pointing a gun.

Initially, she didn’t think what she was seeing was real, but then she felt her chest pounding and her ears ringing as a torrent of gunshots erupted, she said. At first, it “didn’t register as real,” she said, until the sound of the shots reverberated through her chest.

Wilczewski hid under a table as the gunman walked down a nearby hallway. She could see some of her coworkers on the floor or lying on chairs – all still and some likely dead, she said. She stayed because she didn’t want to leave them alone.

“I could have ran out that door … and I stayed. I stayed so they wouldn’t be alone in their last moments,” Wilczewski said in a message to the families of two victims.

When the shooter returned to the break room, Wilczewski said, he told her to get out from under the table and go home.

“I had to touch the door which was covered (in blood),” she said. “I just remember gripping my bag and thinking, ‘If he’s going to shoot me in the back – well, he’s going to have to try really hard cause I’m running,’ and I booked it. … and I didn’t stop until I got to my car and then I had a meltdown.”

Briana Tyler, also a newly hired employee, had just begun her shift when the gunfire erupted.

“All of a sudden you just hear pa pa pa pa pa pa pa,” Tyler told CNN, adding she saw bullets flying just inches from her face. “It wasn’t a break in between them to where you could really try to process it.”

The shooter had a “blank stare on his face” as he looked around the room and shot at people, Tyler said.

“There were people just dropping to the floor,” she said. “Everybody was screaming, gasping, and yeah, he just walked away after that and just continued throughout the store and just kept shooting.”

The shooter displayed some disturbing behavior in the past, other employees said.

Shaundrayia Reese, who worked with the shooter from 2015 to 2018, described him as a loner.

“He was always saying the government was watching him. He didn’t like social media and he kept black tape on his phone camera. Everyone always thought something was wrong with him,” Reese said.

Joshua Johnson, a former maintenance worker at the store, said the shooter had made ominous threats if he ever lost his job.

“He said if he ever got fired from his job, he would retaliate and people would remember who he was,” Johnson said.

Hear Walmart employee who witnessed shooting describe manager’s reputation

Neither Johnson nor Reese reported any concerns about Bing to management, they said.

In a statement, Walmart said it was working with local law enforcement in the investigation.

“We feel tragedies like this personally and deeply. But this one is especially painful as we have learned the gunman was a Walmart associate,” President and CEO of Walmart US John Furner said in a statement. “The entire Walmart family is heartbroken. Our hearts and prayers are with those impacted.”



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Chesapeake Walmart shooting: At least 6 people were killed, officials say. The shooter is also dead

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CNN
 — 

[Breaking news update, published at 8:21 a.m. ET]

The gunman who killed six people at a Walmart in Virginia on Tuesday night was an employee at the store, Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky said Wednesday. Solesky said the gunman is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but his identity has not been released because his next of kin has not been notified.

[Previous story, published at 7:31 a.m. ET]

At least six people were shot dead Tuesday night inside a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, in an attack that unfolded within an hour of the store’s scheduled closing time, city officials said early Wednesday.

The shooter is dead, city officials said.

Investigators were sweeping the store overnight into Wednesday to search for victims or people who may have been hiding, Chesapeake Police spokesperson Leo Kosinski told CNN earlier. Police earlier reported people injured.

Investigators believe the shooter was an employee or former employee of the store who opened fire on other employees in a break room, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Officials believe the shooter at some point turned the gun on himself, according to the source.

Officers responded to the Walmart around 10:12 p.m. – less than an hour before it was set to close – and found victims and evidence of a shooting, Kosinski said.

Five patients were being treated at Sentara General Hospital in nearby Norfolk, Virginia, a spokesperson for Sentara Healthcare told CNN affiliate WTKR. An update on their conditions was not immediately available.

A news conference was scheduled for 8 a.m. Wednesday, Chesapeake city officials said on Twitter.

The shooting, which came two days ahead of Thanksgiving as customers were doing last-minute shopping, is yet another instance of how gun violence erupts in American life in places traditionally seen as safe, from schools to stores and even hospitals.

At the University of Virginia in Charlottesville – which is about 170 miles west of Chesapeake – a 22-year-old student allegedly opened fire on fellow students this month, killing three of them on a bus returning to campus from a field trip to Washington, DC.

Last weekend, a 22-year-old shot and killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and 19 others were injured, authorities said.

Tuesday’s shooting happened as the US has recorded more than 600 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive and CNN tally a mass shooting as one involving at least four killed or injured, not including the shooter.

Joetta Jeffery told CNN her mother, Betsy Umphlett, sent her texts from inside the store during the shooting, alerting her that someone had opened fire.

“I’m crying, I’m shaking,” Jeffery told CNN. “I had just talked to her about buying turkeys for Thanksgiving, then this text came in.”

Jeffery said her mother is uninjured but in shock, and they’ve been reunited.

Chesapeake city officials have asked people to stay away from the store during the investigation.

“Our first responders are well-trained and prepared to respond; please give them space to do so,” the city said in a tweet.

A reunification center was set up at the Chesapeake Conference Center, city officials said. They are asking that only immediate family and emergency contacts for people who were in the store go to the center.

In a statement, Walmart said it’s shocked at the tragedy that unfolded in one of its stores.

“We’re praying for those impacted, the community and our associates. We’re working closely with law enforcement, and we are focused on supporting our associates,” the company said in the statement.

The Washington, DC, field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is assisting local police in the investigation, the bureau said on Twitter.



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Club Q shooting: As grief grips Colorado Springs after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub, officials are investigating whether it was a bias-motivated crime

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CNN
 — 

The mass shooting inside an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where five people were killed and more than a dozen were injured over the weekend is being investigated as a bias-driven crime as survivors grapple with trauma and grief following the attack.

Club Q, known in the Colorado Springs area as a safe haven for the LGBTQ community, turned into a crime scene late Saturday, when a shooter unleashed gunfire at patrons. Five people were killed and 19 were injured, including 17 people with gunshot wounds, police said.

Officials identified the people who were killed as Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump.

Two people inside the nightclub, Richard Fierro and Thomas James, subdued the attacker before officers arrived just minutes after the shooting started, police said.

Fierro, a former Army major who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told CNN in an emotional interview Monday the violence and trauma experienced during the shooting was akin to that of a warzone.

“My daughter and wife should have never experienced combat in Colorado Springs. And everybody in that building experienced combat that night, not to their own accord, but because they were forced to,” Fierro said through tears. “It’s a lot for any human.”

Fierro was at the nightclub celebrating a birthday with his wife and daughter. His daughter’s boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, was also there and was killed.

“I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy that wanted to protect his kids and wife, and I still didn’t get to protect her boyfriend,” Fierro said.

Barrett Hudson was also at the club that night and was shot seven times as he tried to flee the gunfire.

“I took off running to the back and I got shot. I knew I got shot a few times. I fell down. He proceeded to shoot me. I got back up. I made it out of the back of the club,” Hudson told CNN.

After taking his first steps since the shooting Monday, he said he’s in disbelief of having survived.

“Seven bullets missed my spine, missed my liver, missed my colon.” Hudson said. “I got really, really lucky.”

He added, “I did not expect to make it. I damn sure did not expect to walk as soon as I’m walking.”

As many others mourn those who didn’t make it out alive and survivors recover from yet another mass shooting in the US, questions linger on the motivation for the attack.

Authorities identified the suspected shooter as Anderson Lee Aldrich, who remained hospitalized Monday after he was taken down by Fierro and James. Fierro said he hit the suspect with one of his guns while others kicked him in the head.

Aldrich, 22, faces five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, according to an online docket in El Paso County courts. Michael Allen, district attorney for El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, said formal charges have not been filed and the ones on the docket are preliminary and may change.

The docket does not reflect whether Aldrich has retained an attorney. Allen said after Aldrich is moved from a medical facility to jail, he will have an initial appearance by video.

“It’s important that if we have enough evidence to support bias-motivated crimes, to charge that. It’s important for this community,” Allen said during a news conference.

Hate crimes in Colorado are referred to as “bias-motivated” crimes, Allen told CNN Monday.

Saturday’s shooting is one of several high-profile mass shootings that have occurred in Colorado, including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. Last year in Colorado Springs, a mass shooting at a birthday party left six dead.

So far this year, the US has seen mass shootings unfold at a rate of nearly two per day, for a total of at least 605, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Both CNN and the archive define a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are killed or wounded excluding the shooter.

As authorities continue their investigation into the shooting, many are focused on grieving the lives lost.

Daniel Aston, 28, was a bar supervisor at Club Q, according to friend and bartender Michael Anderson.

“He was the best supervisor anybody could’ve asked for. He made me want to come into work, and he made me want to be a part of the positive culture we were trying to create there,” Anderson said.

Aston moved to Colorado Springs two years ago to be closer to his mother and father, his parents Jeff and Sabrina Aston told The Denver Post.

At four years old, Aston told his mother he was a boy and a decade later, he came out as transgender, his mother told the newspaper. He thought himself bashful, but that wasn’t the case, she said.

“He had so much more life to give to us, and to all his friends and to himself,” she told the newspaper.

The sister of victim Kelly Loving released a statement Monday, expressing her support for everyone who lost a loved one in the shooting.

“My condolences go out to all the families who lost someone in this tragic event, and to everyone struggling to be accepted in this world. My sister was a good person. She was loving and caring and sweet. Everyone loved her. Kelly was a wonderful person,” Tiffany Loving said in the statement to CNN.

The family of Ashley Pugh said they were absolutely devastated by her loss and that her daughter Ryleigh “was her whole world.”

“She meant everything to this family, and we can’t even begin to understand what it will mean to not have her in our lives,” the family said in a statement.

Pugh worked at the nonprofit Kids Crossing, which aims to help foster children find homes, according to the statement. She was also involved with helping the LGBTQ community find welcoming foster placements.

Derrick Rump was a bartender at Club Q. The venue served as a place where he “found a community of people that he loved really much, and he felt that he could shine there – and he did,” his sister, Julia Kissling, CNN affiliate WFMZ.

“He made a difference in so many people’s lives, and that’s where he wanted to be,” she said.

Tiara Kelley, who performed at the club the night before the shooting, told CNN that Rump and his coworker, Aston, were polar opposites in many ways, but worked well together.

“They were just amazing, and every bar should have a Daniel and a Derrick,” Kelley said.

Raymond Green Vance, 22, had just gotten a job at a Colorado Springs FedEx distribution center and “was thrilled to have received his first paycheck,” his family said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, he never left the club. Raymond was the victim of a man who unleashed terror on innocent people out with family and friends,” the statement read. “His own family and friends are completely devastated by the sudden loss of a son, grandson, brother, nephew, and cousin loved by so many.”

Vances was “a kind, selfless young adult with his entire life ahead of him. His closest friend describes him as gifted, one-of-a-kind, and willing to go out of his way to help anyone,” his family said.

Aldrich has not given a statement to law enforcement, police said.

“I haven’t heard that he has not been cooperative, just simply that he has determined not to speak to investigators,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez told CNN Monday.

The suspect had a long gun during the attack and two firearms were found at the scene, Vasquez has said.

Two law enforcement sources told CNN records show Aldrich purchased both weapons brought to the attack, an AR-style rifle and a handgun.

Prior to Saturday’s shooting, the suspect was arrested in June 2021 in connection with a bomb threat that led to a standoff at his mother’s home, according to a news release from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office at the time and his mother’s former landlord.

Two law enforcement sources confirmed the suspect in Saturday’s shooting and the bomb threat were the same person based on his name and date of birth.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report by the man’s mother that he was “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,” according to the release. Deputies called the suspect, and he “refused to comply with orders to surrender,” the release said, leading them to evacuate nearby homes.

Several hours after the initial police call, the sheriff’s crisis negotiations unit was able to get Aldrich to leave the house, and he was arrested. Authorities at the time did not find any explosives in the home.

Attempts by CNN to reach Aldrich’s mother for comment were unsuccessful.

The two law enforcement sources who said the suspect purchased the firearms also told CNN his arrest over a bomb threat would not have shown up in background checks because the case was never adjudicated, the charges were dropped, and the records were sealed. It is not clear what led to the sealing of the records, they said.

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Colorado Springs shooting at LGBTQ club leaves 5 dead and shatters safe haven provided by the venue

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CNN
 — 

Lily Forsell remembers taking in the scene of the dance floor at Club Q as she was leaving Saturday after a night celebrating her 18th birthday – dozens of people were laughing, singing and dancing like they always did after the evening’s drag show.

Less than an hour later, that dance floor became the site of a violent attack.

As midnight neared, the safe haven for the Colorado Springs, Colorado, LGBTQ community was shattered by a gunman who entered the nightclub and opened fire, killing at least 5 people and injuring 25 others, police said.

Police rushed to the scene after receiving several 911 calls beginning at 11:56 p.m. They arrived to find at least two people in the venue had taken down the gunman and prevented further violence, according to Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez.

Victims were transported to several local hospitals, Vasquez said. Nineteen of the 25 people injured sustained gunshot wounds, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told CNN Sunday.

A 22-year-old man is in custody and was being treated at a hospital Sunday, according to police, who noted officers did not shoot at the suspect. Investigators are still working to determine a motive, including whether the shooting was a hate crime, Vasquez said.

The brutal attack fell on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance – observed in honor of the lives of trans people lost to anti-trans violence and hatred – and is reminiscent of the 2016 Pulse massacre in Orlando, in which a shooter killed 49 people at the gay nightclub.

While police have not identified any victims, the parents of Daniel Aston told the Denver Post their son was killed while bartending at Club Q Saturday. Jeff and Sabrina Aston told the Post their son moved to Colorado Springs two years ago to be closer to them and got a job at the club, which is just minutes from their house.

The shooting has devastated regulars like Cole Danielson who worked as a drag king at Club Q when he first moved to Colorado Springs. Just last month, he and his wife celebrated their wedding there.

“This space is really the only place in Colorado Springs that the LGBTQ+ community can get together and be ourselves,” he told CNN.

“Our safety as queer people in Colorado Springs is now questioned,” Danielson added. “I’m scared to be myself as a trans man in this community.”

Lifelong Colorado Springs resident Tiana Nicole Dykes called Club Q “a second home full of chosen family.”

“This space means the world to me. The energy, the people, the message. It’s an amazing place that didn’t deserve this tragedy,” said Dykes, who has close friends who were critically injured and died in the shooting. Dykes says the shock of the attack only gets worse with time.

Antonio Taylor, a drag queen and Colorado Springs resident, said Club Q and its welcoming community helped them feel ready to come out.

“This was one of the places where I didn’t have to worry about looks or people hating me for who I am,” they said, adding, “I’m sick to my stomach that the one place where I knew I was safe has been made unsafe.”

Taylor was set to perform at the club’s Musical Drag Brunch on Sunday but the attack forced Club Q to shut its doors indefinitely.

Jewels Parks, who has been in the Colorado drag scene for over a year, often performs at Club Q under her drag name Dezzy Dazzles and considers the venue a space where the outside world’s cruelty was not welcome.

“Club Q, along with all of the other LGBTQIA+ bars, represent a safe space for a community that has felt unsafe and rejected for most of their lives,” Parks told CNN.

“To have our safe place ripped from us and to lose members of our community, is a whole other type of hurt,” Parks said. “Right now we need to love each other a little extra and be kind to one another.”

The suspected gunman, identified by police as Anderson Lee Aldrich, used a long rifle during the attack, according to Vasquez. Two firearms were found at the scene, the chief said.

Though he opened fire immediately upon entering the club, Vasquez said, the shooting lasted just minutes as people in the venue subdued him.

“At least two heroic people inside the club confronted and fought with the suspect and were able to stop the suspect,” Vasquez said. “We owe them a great debt of thanks.”

Police said Sunday they are looking into the suspect’s history as part of their investigation.

In June 2021, Aldrich was arrested in connection with a bomb threat that led to a standoff at his mother’s home, according to a news release from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office at the time and his mother’s former landlord. Colorado Springs is in El Paso County.

Two law enforcement sources confirmed the suspect in the nightclub shooting and the bomb threat were the same person based on name and date of birth.

In the 2021 incident, sheriff’s deputies responded to a report by the man’s mother that he was “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,” according to the release. Deputies called the suspect, and he “refused to comply with orders to surrender,” the release said, leading them to evacuate nearby homes.

Several hours after the initial police call, the sheriff’s crisis negotiations unit was able to get Aldrich to leave the house he was in, and he was arrested after walking out the front door. Authorities did not find any explosives in the home.

Attempts by CNN to reach Aldrich’s mother for comment were unsuccessful.

It was not immediately clear how the bomb threat case was resolved, but the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the district attorney’s office said no formal charges were pursued in the case. The district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.

Aldrich also called the Gazette in an attempt to get an earlier story about the 2021 incident removed from the website, the newspaper reported. “There is absolutely nothing there, the case was dropped, and I’m asking you either remove or update the story,” Aldrich said in a voice message, according to the Gazette.

Until recently, Club Q served as the only LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs and always had “good energy,” 14-year patron Shenika Mosley told CNN. After the shooting, however, Mosley believes, “We’ll never be able to have that ever again.”

Support for those grappling with the brutal attack has rushed in from LGBTQ advocacy groups, politicians and communities who have endured similar attacks.

Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, a large LGBTQ media advocacy organization, called the attack “unspeakable” and said the organization “stands in solidarity with Colorado’s LGBTQ community.”

A vigil was held Sunday at the Pulse Interim Memorial in Florida “to stand together for the families of the victims, survivors, first responders, and the LGBTQIA+ community in Colorado Springs,” Pulse Orlando said on Instagram.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the nation’s first openly gay governor, condemned the shooting, ordered flags lowered to half-staff at all public buildings statewide for five days to honor the five victims of the attack. The Pride flag will also be flown at the state capitol for the same period of time, he said.

Speaking to CNN’s Jim Acosta Sunday, Polis emphasized how deeply the shooting touches the intimate LGBTQ community in the city, saying, “Everyone knew (Club Q). I knew it, knew this venue. It’s just shocking.”

“I know we’re going to bounce back. We’re showing love for one another. We’re showing healing for one another,” the governor said.



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What we know about the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs

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CNN
 — 

A 22-year-old gunman killed at least five people and injured 25 others in an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, just before midnight Saturday, police said Sunday.

The suspect in the shooting at Club Q was identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich, according to Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez.

Upon entering the club, he immediately opened fire before at least two people inside the club confronted and fought him, preventing further violence, Vasquez said.

“We owe them a great debt of thanks,” he said.

Aldrich is being treated at a hospital, police said. Officers did not shoot at him, police said.

Colorado has seen some of the worst mass shootings in US history, including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. Last year in Colorado Springs, a mass shooting at a birthday party left six dead.

Here’s what we know about the fatal attack in Colorado Springs:

The violence lasted just minutes. Police received numerous 911 calls starting at 11:56 p.m., officers were dispatched at 11:57 p.m., an officer arrived at midnight and the suspect was detained at 12:02 a.m., police said. A total of 39 patrol officers responded, police said, and Fire Department Captain Mike Smaldino said 11 ambulances went to the scene.

Aldrich used a long rifle in the shooting and two firearms were found at the scene, Vasquez, the police chief, said.

Joshua Thurman told CNN affiliate KOAA he was inside the club dancing when he heard gunshots and saw a muzzle flash.

“I thought it was the music, so I kept dancing,” he said. When he heard another round of shots, Thurman said he ran to a dressing room to hide.

He said he heard the sounds of more gunshots, people crying and windows being shattered. When he came out, he saw bodies lying on the ground, broken glass and blood, Thurman said.

Authorities initially said 18 people were injured but later adjusted that total up to 25.

Nineteen of the 25 injured had gunshot wounds, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told CNN’s Jim Acosta Sunday. Based on communication with medical personnel, Suthers said he expects the injured victims to survive and the community is “crossing our fingers” for no more fatalities.

Police said they were investigating whether the attack was a hate crime, noting Club Q’s relationship with the LGBTQ community. The shooting came as the calendar turned to Transgender Day of Remembrance on Sunday.

“Club Q is a safe haven for our LGBTQ citizens,” Vasquez said. “Every citizen has a right to feel safe and secure in our city, to go about our beautiful city without fear of being harmed or treated poorly.”

In a statement on social media, Club Q said it was “devastated by the senseless attack on our community” and thanked “the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.”

Two law enforcement sources confirmed that the suspected nightclub shooter’s date of birth and name matched a person who was arrested over a bomb threat the previous year, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also told CNN he believed they were one and the same: “Everything I heard indicates it is the same person,” Polis said.

Anderson Lee Aldrich was arrested in June 2021 after a standoff at a Colorado Springs home where his mother lived, according to a news release from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office at the time, and his mother’s former landlord.

Video obtained by CNN shows Aldrich surrendering to law enforcement last year after allegedly making a bomb threat. Footage from the Ring door camera of the owner of the home shows Aldrich exiting the house with his hands up and barefoot, and walking to sheriff’s deputies.

Sheriff’s deputies said in the June release that they responded to a report by Aldrich’s mother that he was “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition.”

Deputies called the suspect, and he “refused to comply with orders to surrender,” the press release said, leading them to evacuate nearby homes.

Several hours after the initial police call, the sheriff’s crisis negotiations unit was able to get Aldrich to leave the house he was in, and he was arrested after walking out the front door. Authorities did not find any explosives in the home.

It’s not immediately clear how the case was resolved. But the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the district attorney’s office said no formal charges were pursued in the case. The district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.

Aldrich also called the Gazette in an attempt to get an earlier story about the 2021 incident removed from the website, the newspaper reported. “There is absolutely nothing there, the case was dropped, and I’m asking you either remove or update the story,” Aldrich said in a voice message, according to the Gazette.

Attempts by CNN to reach Aldrich’s mother for comment were unsuccessful.

Club Q opened in 2002 and was, until recently, the only LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs.

The city is the state’s second-most populous with just under 500,000 residents and is home to a number of military bases. It is the headquarters for Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian group that says homosexuality and same-sex marriage are sins.

In a July 2020 interview with Colorado Springs Indy, Club Q owner Nic Grzecka said he and his business partner opened the club to get a “permanent” safe place in the city.

The venue also hosts events for people of all ages, including brunch and planned an upcoming Thanksgiving event.

Lifelong Colorado Springs resident Tiana Nicole Dykes called Club Q “a second home full of chosen family.”

“I’m there every other week if not every single week. This space means the world to me. The energy, the people, the message. It’s an amazing place that didn’t deserve this tragedy,” Dykes told CNN on Sunday. “Something like a mass shooting at an LGBT+ safe space is damaging beyond belief. There’s feelings of disrespect, disbelief, and just pure shock. Nobody ever thinks it’s gonna happen to them, and sometimes it does.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat and the nation’s first openly gay governor, issued a statement Sunday calling the attack “horrific, sickening and devastating” and offered state resources to local law enforcement.

“We are eternally grateful for the brave individuals who blocked the gunman likely saving lives in the process and for the first responders who responded swiftly to this horrific shooting,” he said. “Colorado stands with our LGTBQ community and everyone impacted by this tragedy as we mourn together.”

Polis told CNN’s Jim Acosta there are only two gay bars in Colorado Springs, and Club Q was one of the main venues.

“Everyone knew it. I knew it, knew this venue. It’s just shocking. That’s still setting in for people. But I know we’re going to bounce back. We’re showing love for one another. We’re showing healing for one another,” the governor said.

Colorado’s two US senators, both Democrats, offered condolences in statements and said more should be done for the LGBTQ community.

“We have to protect LGBTQ lives from this hate,” Sen. John Hickenlooper said.

“As we seek justice for this unimaginable act, we must do more to protect the LGBTQ community and stand firm against discrimination and hate in every form,” Sen. Michael Bennett said.

President Joe Biden also issued a statement saying he was praying for the victims and their families.

“While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years. Gun violence continues to have a devastating and particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation and threats of violence are increasing,” Biden said in the written statement.



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