CHARLOTTE, N.C. — (Warning: Story contains graphic details)
Five people were killed and 25 others were injured when a gunman opened fire at an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, over the weekend, police said.
The suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, is facing five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, court records show.
One of the victims in the Club Q shooting is a Charlotte native. Barrett Hudson posted a video on Facebook from the hospital, saying he was shot multiple times during the massacre.
"I am doing amazing in my recovery, Hudson said. "I got shot seven times in the back with an AR-15."
Hudson said the club had more security and that he believes more people were killed than what's been confirmed by police at this time. Hudson explained he and some friends went to the club for a drag show when a gunman entered the building and started shooting.
"Some dude walked in with an AR-15 and started shooting people, and I got shot seven times in the back," Hudson said. "I fell down. He kept shooting me. I got up, ran to the back door. I hopped on a table to climb the fence. I think it had barbed wire on the top of it. I'm not sure."
Hudson said he made it to a 7-Eleven where he was able to get help.
"I thought I was going to bleed out," he said. "I thought I was going to die. I had lost a lot of blood, and they had to put a lot of blood in me."
Hudson said the bullets miraculously missed his vital organs and spine. The Charlotte native said he recently moved to Colorado but isn't sure if he'll stay because his rehabilitation is scheduled in Charlotte.
"I shouldn't be alive," he said. "I really feel for the people who didn't make it. I really, really feel. They're the families that are getting calls and I was, fortunately, able to call my dad and say goodbye."
Shane Mendez Windmeyer, the CEO of Charlotte-based Campus Pride, an organization for LGBTQ+ young adults on college campuses, said this is a difficult time for the LGBTQ+ community and his heart is with all of the victims of the shooting, especially his friend Barrett.
"He's in recovery," Windmeyer said. "He went through surgery and we're hoping, you know, it's gonna be a long road, but we're hoping the best."
Hudson plans to come back to Charlotte to do his rehabilitation so he can be closer to his loved ones while he recovers.
Gunman's history
Already questions were being raised about why authorities didn’t seek to take Aldrich’s guns away from him in 2021 following an arrest. At the time, his mother reported he had threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons.
Although law enforcement authorities said at the time no explosives were found, gun control advocates are asking why police didn’t trigger Colorado’s “red flag” law, which would have allowed authorities to seize the weapons his mother said he had. There is no public record that prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich.
Calling for a change
Saturday night's attack took place on the eve of Transgender Remembrance Day.
"Transgender Remembrance Day is where we honor the lives of those we've lost," Windmeyer said. "The fact that we had to lose five more lives of LGBTQ+ people... It's not only tragic, but it's a sad place for us to be as a country."
LGBTQ+ advocates said they are tired of the hate and violence that targets their communities and are calling for a change.
"People in this country and around the world are not going to be safe until we have a society and a government that fully welcomed and fully affirms all queer people of all ages, all backgrounds," Matt Comer of Charlotte Pride said.
"The fact that anywhere in this country, you can be targeted... is really disturbing, and tragic," added Windmeyer.
LGBTQ+ leaders said there has been an increase in threats and violence against their community. Many of them wonder how many more lives have to be lost before there is change.
"North Carolina has some of the weakest hate crime laws in the country," Cameron Pruette, President of the LGBTQ+ Democrats of Mecklenburg County, said. "If an event like this was to happen [here], hate crime laws would not protect LGBTQ people under hate crime."
Pruette also expressed concerns about weaponry.
"We know what weapon was used: It was an AR-15, the same kind of weapon used at Uvalde and the same used at the Pulse Orlando shooting," Pruette said.
Windmeyer would like to see a change.
"There's been a number of bills across the country that have passed that are demonizing transgender and nonconforming people," Windmeyer said, "We have a problem when we have leaders who are spewing hatred and creating an environment where people can take their guns and go shoot innocent LGBTQ people."
"People who want to erase us will not succeed," Pruette added.
Political response
Following the shooting, political leaders have responded.
Charlotte
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles shared this statement on the Colorado shooting.
“My heart goes out to the all the people affected by this terrible crime. We must reaffirm our commitment to supporting and protecting the LGBTQI+ community and stand firm against discrimination and hate in every form.
May God bless the victims and their families and all of those in our country affected by this senseless violence.”
The Biden Administration released the following statement :
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. We saw it six years ago in Orlando, when our nation suffered the deadliest attack affecting the LGBTQI+ community in American history. We continue to see it in the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women – especially transgender women of color. And tragically, we saw it last night in this devastating attack by a gunman wielding a long rifle at an LGBTQI+ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often. We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate.
Today, yet another community in America has been torn apart by gun violence. More families left with an empty chair at the table and hole in their lives that cannot be filled. When will we decide we’ve had enough? We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms. Earlier this year, I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more. We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets.
Today, Jill and I are praying for the families of the five people killed in Colorado Springs last night, and for those injured in this senseless attack.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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