Colorado Springs LGBTQ2 bar shooting: Survivor says ‘I want to get back on my feet’ – National

A man who has been going to Club Q for decades was shot in the back while trying to open a tab at a bar. Another man said he heard a “pong, pong, pong” sound and received a bullet in his arm as he tried to leave a club with a group. Then I saw my boyfriend and his sister fall to the floor.

They are among the 17 people injured in the shooting of a 22-year-old man Saturday at Club Q, a club well-known in Colorado Springs’ LGBTQ community. On Tuesday, they shared the horror of watching a loved one get shot down in front of them, and the hope they felt when people helped each other amidst the chaos.

Ed Saunders, 63, said he was waiting in line at a bar and was struck in the back between his shoulder blades when he handed his credit card to the bartender. He turned to the gunman, but was hit in the thigh when another salvo was fired.

“I fell,” Sanders said in a video statement released Tuesday by UCHealth Memorial Hospital Center. did.”

As he, his boyfriend and his sister prepared to leave the club, James Slaf said, “Suddenly I heard ‘Pop, pop, pop’.” I was. ”

Speaking to the Associated Press from her hospital bed, Slough said she saw people fall around her, including her boyfriend who was shot in the leg and her sister who had 13 gunshot wounds. He immediately called the police and heard a few more shots, but nothing.

The shooting killed five people, but was stopped after the gunmen were disarmed by patrons.

The motive for the attack is still under investigation and the man has not been formally charged. Police say he was armed with multiple firearms, including an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, and are being considered for possible hate crimes.

“I want to be resilient. I’m a survivor,” Sanders said. “I’m not going to be taken out by a sick person.”

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Sanders has been a patron of Club Q for 20 years and even went to Club Q’s opening night decades ago. Video recorded by the hospital showed him wearing a hospital gown and an oxygen tube in his nose.

He said that after the 2016 Florida Pulse gay nightclub shooting that killed 49 people, Sanders wondered what would happen if something similar happened at Club Q, but he never dreamed it would happen. I didn’t.

“I’m smiling now because I’m happy to be alive,” Sanders said.

Sanders knew many victims, including the “door lady” and two bartenders who died. said.

Sanders said the shot to the back missed vital organs, but fractured a rib. That was the most blood,” he said.

“I think this case highlights the fact that LGBT people need to be loved,” Sanders said.

For Slaugh, Club Q was a place of comfort after coming out as gay at the age of 24. It was where I met my partner, his girlfriend, Jancarlos Del Valle, eight months ago, and where I took her sister, Charlene, on Saturday. A night to cheer her up from her recent breakup and her mother’s death to COVID-19 a year ago.

Slough said the club quickly became a community again after the shooter was subdued. A man told Slough he was fine and kissed him on the forehead.

“It was very reassuring for me,” he said. “That hope stayed there.”

Del Valle and James were taken to one hospital, while Charlene, who was more seriously injured, was taken to another. A support community has formed around Slough, including a GoFundMe campaign to pay for medical bills. Messages flooded in from all over the world.

“Being shot and being the victim of all this gave me hope more than anything, especially with everyone together,” he said. “Now is not the time to be afraid. Now is not the time to let one bad person in. Now is the time to unite.”

© 2022 The Canadian Press