For members of Colorado Springs’ LGBTQ+ community, Club Q offers a place of safety and reassurance, a place where they are free to be themselves without judgment.

It opened 21 years ago, when service members could be kicked out of the military for admittedly being gay, when employment of any kind could be in jeopardy for coming out as gay or lesbian and when housing, health care and marriage weren’t considered basic rights afforded to everyone.

Shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs leaves 5 dead, 25 injured; patrons hailed as heroes

“Club Q was their safe haven,” nightclub founder and co-owner Matthew Haynes said while speaking at a church service Sunday at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, following a mass shooting at his bar Saturday night.

Patrons formed their families of choice as they made friends at the nightclub “with confidence, without thinking they’re different,” he said.

Until Saturday night, shortly before midnight, when a gunman opened fire inside the club.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, Colorado Springs mass shooting suspect, may have had earlier run-ins with police

“Last night, one man went into our home and murdered five of our community,” Haynes said to the crowd of mourners.

“We know there’s politics in this, but today is about grieving for our family members,” he said. “Tomorrow’s the politics.”

The club is closed indefinitely, Haynes told The Gazette in an interview.

Not only is it a crime scene, he said, but the interior has extensive and severe damage.

Joshua Thurman, a witness to the Club Q shooting, explains what he saw during the attack

“We’d have the occasional fight between lovers, but we hardly had any calls to police,” Haynes said, adding that he has no estimated timeframe for reopening.

“Obviously, we’re horrified.”

Additional vigils scheduled today after Club Q mass shooting

Mourners gathered Sunday along North Academy Boulevard in front of the club’s parking lot, blocked off by yellow police tape.

Many laid down flowers or other relics at a memorial that included dozens of multi-colored floral bouquets, teddy bears and candles, along with signs bearing messages like “love over hate” and “coexist.”

“It sucks that it takes something like this to bring us together,” said Joshua Thurman, 34, who stood in front of the memorial Sunday morning as tears welled in his eyes. Thurman was inside Club Q celebrating his birthday when the shooting happened.

“… This was our space and now for that to be destroyed – we’re broken. We need to be strong and hold on. We’re somehow going to get through this. It’s tough. Nothing is going to replace the lives lost,” he said.

The shooting came as a shock to the Colorado Springs community since it happened at a nightclub not known to be violent, Colorado Springs police spokeswoman Lt. Pamela Castro said.

“This club is not a problem,” she said. “… We are shocked and saddened.”

Some club patrons mourned what they felt was a loss of safety after the shooting, both at the club and in the broader Colorado Springs community.

“I cannot understand how people can have so much hatred in their hearts toward people who are different than them,” resident Tiffany Haugh said after laying down flowers at the memorial. Tears fell down her face.

She was not at Club Q when the shooting happened, but has visited before, she said.

“Just when I thought things were getting better, it seems like in the last handful of years we’ve started to go back to the way things were 20 years ago,” when members of the LGBTQ+ community had to lie about their sexual orientation or gender identity for fear of violence against them, Haugh said.

History of mass shootings in Colorado

“This was one of our last safe havens and it’ll never be the same again. I’m not even sure if I’ll ever be able to go back through those doors for fear. It’s just so sad,” she said.

One Club Q visitor who is not open about her sexual orientation and wished not to be named said Club Q was a place where she didn’t have to worry about judgment from other people.

It was one of the first places she visited when she moved to Colorado Springs last year, she said.

“It’s hard not being able to feel safe in your community or feel like maybe you’re not accepted. (The shooting) kind of drove that point home,” she said. “But don’t admit defeat. I know not everybody can fight. Not everyone feels like it. But I feel like this is when you dig your heels in. This is when you fight back and say this isn’t going to define our community anymore.”

Shenika Mosley and her wife, Jennifer Pena-Mosley, said they were hopeful the sense of community they found at Club Q could be rebuilt.

It’s a place where “you can be yourself … and be safe in your environment,” Pena-Mosley said.

“We all love each other so when things like this happen to our community, it hurts really bad,” she said. “… Gay people are not bad people. … We don’t really ask for much. Just to be ourselves.” 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Colorado Springs police initially reported early Sunday that five people had died and 18 were wounded, then changed it to five dead and another 25 wounded. On Monday, a joint operation between police and the city of Colorado Springs corrected the totals to five fatalities, and 17 people sustained gunshot wounds, another person injured in another manner and one victim with no visible injuries but considered a victim, according to city spokesman Max D’Onofrio. The situation was very chaotic on Sunday, D’Onofrio said, which led to the change in numbers. The suspect also was wounded and remains in police custody in a local hospital. He brings the total to 25 people impacted.

Pastor Alycia Erickson gives a sermon at a Nov. 20 service at Pikes Peak Metropolitan Community Church for the victims of the Club Q shooting

9NEWS LIVESTREAM: Colorado Springs officials, including Mayor John Suthers, CSPD Chief Adrian Vasquez, and 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael J. Allen provide an update on deadly mass shooting at Club Q during an 8 a.m. press conference on Nov. 20 at the Police Operations Center. 

9NewsShooting kills 5, injures 25 at Colorado Springs nightclub