Club Q.Photo: Google Maps
Club Qwas packed on Saturday night, with dozens of clubgoers dancing to the music and grabbing drinks from the bar. Shortly before midnight, a gunman entered the Colorado Springs LGBTQ club and started shooting, killing five people and injuring at least 18 others.
In the seconds after the shooting started, the festive atmosphere turned to confusion, and then to horror.
“It took me a minute to figure out what was happening,” clubgoer Quinn Rains, who was standing near the bar with friends, tells PEOPLE. “And then it sunk in that it was really happening. I looked at my friend and said ‘Oh my God. Get down.'”
“Ever since Pulse, I’ve always been worried about this happening,” Rains continues, referring to the 2016 shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Fla., that killed 49 people. “It’s always in the back of my mind that this could happen here. I don’t like standing with my back against the door, I always know that we could be targets. When the shooting started, all I could think of was Pulse.”
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According toCNN, the first 911 calls began at 11:56 p.m. By midnight, an officer was at the scene, and the suspect was taken into custody at 12:02 a.m, six minutes after the attack started.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez told CNN that at least two people inside the club disarmed the shooter,stopping the violence before it got much worse. “We owe them a great debt of thanks,” Vasquez said.
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Rains stayed on the ground long after the shooting stopped. “I didn’t know that it was safe yet,” Rains recalls. “He could have been reloading. He could have been in another area. I didn’t know. It’s not like someone made an announcement that it was all clear and we could get up.”
“I stood up and hugged my friend, Taylor, and saw people everywhere. There were people on the floor, bodies, but also people moving around. They were injured. I saw blood splattered on the floor. I went outside and gave a statement to the police,” Rains says.
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“The weird thing is that after you tell what happened, and if you’re not hurt, they are basically like ‘You’re free to go.’ And all I could think was ‘Go where? Where am I going to go from here? What am I going to do next? Am I going to just have a normal day after this?’ So I just called my mom and went to her house,” Rains says.
In a statement, the club expressed gratitude to the customers who stopped the gunman.
Rains also wants to thank the unnamed people who stepped in: “If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be talking to you today. They saved my life.”
source: people.com
