The shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub that killed five people and injured 25 others “had all the appearances of being a hate crime,” said Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers on Monday.
22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich has been identified as the suspect behing the fatal shooting at Club Q, however police are yet to divulge a motive for the attack.
Watch | US: Gunman kills five, injures 18 in gay nightclub at Colorado
“The motive is still under investigation,” said Mayor Suthers told NBC’s Today show.
However, he added that “it certainly has the trappings of a hate crime.”
While authorities are yet to classify the shooting as a hate crime, they have said that first-degree murder charges will certainly be filed.
AFP reports that GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy organisation has pointed out that the attack took place Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day which honors victims of transphobic attacks.
The organisation’s president Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement said that “You can draw a straight line from the false and vile rhetoric about LGBTQ people spread by extremists and amplified across social media, to the nearly 300 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year, to the dozens of attacks on our community like this one.”
Representative Brianna Titone of Colorado, an openly trans state representative, also singled out anti-LGBTQ comments.
“When politicians and pundits keep perpetuating tropes, insults, and misinformation about the trans and LGBTQ+ community, this is a result,” said Titone on Twitter.
As per Reuters, due to a contentious political environment and a number of threats and violent acts that have targeted LGBTQ people and events in recent months, anxiety has increased among LGBTQ communities in the United States.
(With inputs from agencies)
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