Colorado Springs nightclub shooting victims include performer, mother, bartender – National

my beloved boyfriend. A 28-year-old bartender who loves performing. Her mother came from a small town where she enjoyed hunting. These were her one of the victims of an assault at an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs that left five dead and 17 with gunshot wounds.

Club regulars and newcomers (gay, straight, transgender, and cisgender) flocked to Club Q on weekends to dance, enjoy comedy shows, and work in bars. What began as a typical Saturday night of dancing and drinking at a prominent LGBTQ+ venue in Colorado, a conservative city south of Denver, Colorado, saw gunmen break in and begin dispersing bullets. After that, it ended in a tragedy of being tackled and subdued.

The 22-year-old faces five counts of murder and five counts of committing a prejudice-based crime that caused personal injury.

The five killed are:

Daniel Aston, 28, grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and moved to Colorado Springs two years ago to be closer to his family. He worked as a bartender and entertainer at Club Q, cherishing the venue as a sanctuary.As a trans man, he was able to be himself and perform to an admiring audience.

A self-proclaimed “master of stupid business,” Aston had a penchant for making others laugh that began as a child when he wore elaborate costumes and wrote plays for neighborhood kids to perform. While he was in college, he was president of the LGBTQ club at his school, and he did fundraising with ever more flamboyant productions.

“(Daniel’s show) is amazing. Everyone needs to go see him,” his mother said. she said.

Club Q bartender Derrick Rump, 38, was remembered as a witty and loving person who adopted his friends into his family.

“He was living his dream and he would have wanted everyone to do the same,” said his mother, Julia Thames, who confirmed his death to ABC News.

In a statement, she said that Lamp was “a kind and loving person with a heart of gold.”

He was always there for my daughter and me when we needed him. His friends from Colorado were also his family,” she said in her statement.

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Anthony Jaramillo, a friend of Lump’s, told CBS News that Lump was “loving, supportive, a heavy hand to pour a drink, a really good listener, and when you were wrong, you knew what you were doing.” Instead of telling you what you did, I would not be afraid to tell you that you were wrong.” I wanted to hear it, it was really worth it.

Kelly Loving, 40, was speaking to a friend on a FaceTime call from inside Club Q just minutes before the shooting began. Natalie Skye Bingham told The New York Times that the last thing she said to Loving was: I love you. “

“She was like a transmother to me. I looked up to her,” Bingham said. “It’s like losing her real mother because in the gay community you create her family.”

Bingham, 25, said he had recently moved to Denver and was visiting the club during a weekend trip to Colorado Springs.

“She was a tough woman,” said Bingham. “She’s a transgender woman, and she showed me what it’s like to live a day-to-day life.”

Loving’s sister, Tiffany Loving, told the newspaper that the FBI said her sister had been killed.

“She was loving and always trying to help the next person instead of thinking about herself,” said Tiffany Loving.

Raymond Green Vance, 22, was at Club Q on Saturday night with his girlfriend Kathy Fierro and father Rich, co-owner of Atrevida Beer Co., a local brewery in Colorado Springs. A group was there to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

“My sweet baby. I can’t cure my illness from now on. I want to wake up from this horrible nightmare. I pray that you hear me when I call you. I’m sorry. I’m the one who brought you all there.” I will never forgive you.I will love you ’till the day I come home and hold you in my arms,” ​​Cathy Fierro wrote in a Facebook post on Monday, along with a photo of the couple.

In a statement, Vance’s family described him as a kind and selfless man with a promising future. I was going to do my best,” said the family.

“Raymond was the victim of a man who, along with his family and friends, terrorized innocent people.

Ashley Poe, 35, was a loving mother and wife with a “big heart,” said husband Kurt Poe. She volunteered with an organization that helps foster children and delivered her Christmas tree to the homes where the children were placed to brighten up her holiday season.

“She was my high school sweetheart and an amazing mother. Her daughter was her whole world,” her husband said in a statement.

She also enjoyed hunting, fishing and riding quads.

Poe, a resident of La Junta, a town of 7,500 people about a two-hour drive from Colorado Springs, visited Club Q on Saturday night for a comedy show with a friend. was According to her husband, she was scheduled to arrange tree deliveries this week to homes with foster children in Pueblo and Colorado Springs.

Associated Press News New York researcher Rhonda Shafner and Colorado Springs reporter Jesse Bedayn contributed to this report. Bedayn is a member of the Associated Press/Reports for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover hidden issues.