Membership Q bartender: Taking pictures was 'aimed straight at my neighborhood'

A bartender at Membership Q in Colorado Springs, Colo., mentioned early Monday that he believes the gunman who dedicated a mass taking pictures there over the weekend was focusing on the LGBTQ neighborhood.

Throughout an look on “CNN This Morning,” Michael Anderson famous that the gunman got here to certainly one of solely two homosexual golf equipment within the metropolis.

“I don’t know what was fallacious with this man,” Anderson mentioned. “I don’t know why he wanted to behave on this approach, however he clearly had some some emotions in the direction of — I don’t know if it was transgender individuals, gays, lesbians, I don’t know — Membership Q is a protected place for everyone, all people within the spectrum of the rainbow.”

“So I don’t know who he was focusing on, however I positively really feel that it was one thing aimed straight at my neighborhood, but once more one other time in our nation,” he continued.

Authorities are wanting into whether or not the taking pictures, by which 5 individuals had been killed and 25 others injured, constitutes a hate crime, though officers haven’t but utilized the label and point out a motive stays unclear.

The taking pictures started simply earlier than midnight on Saturday night. Authorities say a minimum of two individuals confronted the gunman and stopped him from additional carnage, and police detained the suspect inside about 5 minutes of the primary emergency name.

Anderson on CNN mentioned his supervisor, Daniel Aston, was one of many 5 individuals killed.

“He was the perfect supervisor anyone may have requested for,” Anderson advised co-host Don Lemon. “He made me wish to come into work and he made me wish to, you already know, simply be part of the constructive tradition we had been attempting to create there. He was a tremendous individual. He was a lightweight in my life, and it’s nonetheless surreal that we’re even speaking about him up to now tense like this.”

President Biden and different distinguished political figures have condemned the taking pictures, with many tying it to assaults on the LGBTQ neighborhood.

“Whereas no motive on this assault is but clear, we all know that the LGBTQI+ neighborhood has been subjected to horrific hate violence lately,” Biden mentioned in an announcement on Sunday. “Gun violence continues to have a devastating and explicit impression on LGBTQI+ communities throughout our nation and threats of violence are rising.”