At least five people killed in shooting at gay nightclub in Colorado Springs

At least five people were killed and another 25 were injured in a shooting late Saturday at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.

The suspected shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, is in custody, the chief of the Colorado Spring Police Department, Adrian Vasquez, said at a news conference Sunday morning.

The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. Whether or not it was a hate crime is part of the investigation into the attack, Vasquez said.

Police said that at least two firearms were recovered on the scene, and that a long rifle was used during the shooting. Only one person appeared to be involved in the attack, the local district attorney Michael Allen said Sunday.

The New York Times reported that the attacker wore body armor, and he was firing a long gun in the style of an AR-15.

Nearly 40 police officers responded to calls for help from the club, officials added. For his part, Aldrich on Sunday was at a hospital being treated for injuries.

Officials first said at least 18 people were wounded, though that number was increased after an update later in the day.

Police received a call with a report of a shooting just before midnight and and the first officers arrived on the scene minutes later. The suspect was detained at 12.02am, law enforcement officials said.

A drag brunch was scheduled for Sunday morning. Sunday is also the transgender day of remembrance, an annual observance since 1999 in honor of transgender people who were killed in acts of anti-transgender violence.

Joshua Thurman, 34, told reporters he was at Club Q celebrating his birthday on Saturday night and heard shots as he was dancing.

Local news reports show that someone with the same name and age as the suspect was arrested in 2021 and charged with two counts of felony menacing and three counts of first-degree kidnapping. His neighborhood was evacuated as part of a bomb scare after his mother reported that he was threatening to harm her with a homemade bomb.

Police declined to comment on those reports Sunday.

Aldrich registered to vote in May of last year. He did not declare an affiliation with any political party in that registration.

The attack came amid growing fears of violence and intimidation toward drag queens. Those fears were sparked by Republicans who have targeted drag queens with legislation that would ban drag shows entirely, prohibit drag story hours at libraries that are meant to familiarize children with them, and bar minors from attending drag shows.

There is a history of attacks at LGBTQ venues in the US. In 2016, a gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 a a gay nightclub in Orlando in one of the deadliest attacks in US history.

There have now been 601 mass shootings in the US in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as a case where four or more people are shot and wounded or killed, not including the shooter.