Suspect in deadly LGBTQ club shooting was subdued by patrons, Colorado police say

Anthony Kichton was friends with both Derrick Rump and Daniel Aston.

He met Rump about 10 years ago. “Derrick’s always been one of the smartest people I’ve known,” Kichton said. “He was 100 percent a good soul and had an empathetic heart.”

Kichton, 30, who has been frequenting Club Q since he was 18, told The Washington Post via a messaging app Sunday night that he is still processing everything, and that his heart is with the town and his family at Club Q.

The last time Kichton met up with Rump was when the latter was setting up the bar a few months ago. Kichton asked him for relationship advice.

The former general manager of Club Q, Leon Pantoya, spent Sunday fielding calls and messages from and about former employees, many of whom had been hospitalized with gunshot wounds, he said.

“I had to deal with a lot of phone calls, a lot of people crying this morning,” he said.

DJ T-Beatz, who was shot in the stomach and appendix, underwent surgery and was recovering Sunday, he said. A gay bartender, a transgender bartender and a longtime club donor were also among those shot, Pantoya said.

Pantoya also spoke to the current general manager, who was at the club during the shooting.

The dead included bartender Daniel Aston, 28, of Colorado Springs, according to his mother, Sabrina Aston.

“We just found out today,” Aston, 67, a retired respiratory therapist, said by phone from her home in Colorado Springs.

Aston said she and her husband were notified Sunday morning when a detective and patient advocate came to the couple’s house.

“We’re not sure what happened to Daniel. He was heading outside toward the patio to smoke, which I’d been telling him not to. I guess he got caught in the crossfire,” she said. “Some guys jumped on the shooter and saved some people. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Daniel. He never made it to the hospital.”

Officials across Colorado and the United States expressed horror at the violence and sent their condolences.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said the shooting was “horrific, sickening, and devastating,” in a statement on Sunday. Polis, the first openly gay governor in the country, thanked first responders and people at Club Q who blocked the gunman. “Colorado stands with our LGBTQ Community and everyone impacted by this tragedy as we mourn,” Polis wrote.

Later Sunday, his office said in a news release that he had ordered flags lowered to half-staff “on all public buildings statewide from sunrise tomorrow morning until sunset on November 26, 2022, to honor and remember the victims of the horrific shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs.”

COLORADO SPRINGS — Rabbi Iah Pillsbury opened an interfaith service Sunday evening at Temple Beit Torah, a Reform Jewish synagogue in Colorado Springs. Also speaking were local religious leaders and community members representing different faiths.

The service was planned to mark the Transgender Day of Remembrance. After the overnight shooting, the program was modified to include prayers for the victims and survivors.

Pillsbury shared a message of community support, as well as resistance to hate and violence.

Except for a traffic accident and an ambulance being discharged, the high-pitched tone of static silence played out on Colorado Springs dispatch radios for most of Saturday night. But shortly before midnight came a call that would set off a storm of activity as law enforcement and emergency officials scrambled to help dozens of victims at Club Q.

“This will be a Command 4 active shooter,” a man’s voice rang out from the city’s fire and EMS radio, according to audio archived by Broadcastify. “Active shooter all units respond.”

Bonnie Herbst said her best friend and roommate, the DJ Tara “T-Beatz” Bush, was shot twice in the back in the Club Q attack.

“She had surgery Sunday morning. They had to remove her appendix. She’s in the ICU recovering,” said Herbst, 47, of Colorado Springs, adding that her friend was stable, coherent and talking.

She said staff at the hospital where Bush was being treated, UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central, said it was on lockdown because the suspected gunman was also being treated there. Because of the lockdown, Herbst said, she and Bush’s relatives were not allowed to visit her.

As news of a mass shooting at a LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado traveled across the country Sunday, many were asking how to help family members of the victims and survivors, or the LGBTQ community in general. Within hours, organizers were creating fundraisers and sharing locations for blood drives.

With at least five dead and more than 25 injured in the Saturday night shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, mourners across the city put together at least 14 vigils to offer collective support. Willow Creek Wellness, a mental health service in Colorado Springs, was providing flowers, coffee and doughnuts to those attending a memorial for victims Sunday. At a vigil at the All Souls Unitarian Church, there was not enough room for everyone who wanted to participate, and organizers told attendees they will continue holding more vigils.