Victims of Club Q mass shooting speak out on tragedy’s second anniversary: “This is something we carry with us”

Two years after five people were killed and 18 wounded in a mass shooting at Colorado Springs’ Club Q, survivors and victims’ families say they continue to feel the agony of a tragedy that “we carry with us in countless ways.”

“The pain and memories remain as vivid as if they were yesterday,” shooting survivor Charlene Slaugh said during a news conference Tuesday to discuss newly filed litigation.

Slaugh, her brother and his then-boyfriend — now husband — were all shot when Anderson Lee Aldrich burst into the LGBTQ nightclub and opened fire on Nov. 19, 2022. Aldrich will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to murder charges in state court and to additional federal hate crime and weapons charges.

Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump and Ashley Paugh were killed in the shooting.

Slaugh said she now faces triggers she never would have imagined before, as everyday things suddenly bring her back to a time and place she wondered if she’d even survive.

“There’s still moments when the weight of it all becomes overwhelming,” Slaugh said. “…These memories don’t just disappear, they’re woven into the fabric of my life and are a part of my story that cannot be erased. That’s a reality I’m still trying to come to terms with every single day.”

Slaugh’s brother, James, agreed.

“This isn’t something that gets better with time,” he said, gripping his husband’s hand tightly. “This is something we carry with us in countless ways every single day.”

He said he can’t enter new places without checking for exit routes, is always hypervigilant of other people’s behavior and often wakes up from nightmares of guns and explosions.

Fellow Club Q shooting survivor Ashtin Gamblin said she’s spent the past few weeks leading up to the anniversary going through her Facebook posts from two years ago, right before her life changed forever.

“I was preparing for my husband to return home from a deployment, holding down a household, working multiple jobs and still caring for our cats,” Gamblin said. “Our lives forever changed on Nov. 19, 2022. I find myself not only struggling with what happened but with everyday life as well.”

Gamblin, who was shot while working the club’s front door, said she can no longer drive, cook or take her dogs for a walk by herself. She said she struggles to do things she used to love, like going to concerts with her mom.

“This tragedy has forever changed my life, the lives of everyone who is here today,” she said. “There must be accountability and justice. This can never happen again.”

The three survivors are part of a group that filed lawsuits against El Paso County and Club Q in federal court on Sunday.

Families and victims included in the lawsuits claim the nightclub’s owners and El Paso County officials could have prevented the shooting, according to the complaints.

They say the sheriff’s office should have used the state’s red flag law after clear warning signs that the gunman intended to commit violence and that the club’s owners winnowed their security detail from five or more people to just one in the years leading up to the shooting, prioritizing profits over safety.

Matthew Schneider, one of the attorneys representing the survivors, said the long-lasting sting of the shooting comes from the fact that it was “both foreseeable and preventable.”

“This tragedy was not an unavoidable act of violence, but the result of systemic failures by those entrusted to safeguarding the public,” Schneider said during Tuesday’s news  conference.

Failures from both government actors and club management “created the perfect storm, allowing a dangerous individual to carry out his deadly plans,” he said. “…The lawsuit is about accountability, not just for the victims and their families, but to ensure that no other community has to suffer from such reckless disregard for human life.”

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