Now their souls can rest.
Just before midnight on November 19, 2022, a deranged person entered Club Q in Colorado Springs and started shooting indiscriminately at the crowd. Before the perpetrator was thwarted, five people lost their lives and another 25 were injured. The shooter was apprehended alive, somewhat unfortunately, and has been in prison ever since – waiting for their day in court. Well, that day officially came yesterday.
Honorable Judge Michael McHenry sentenced the murderer to life in prison without the chance of parole. Life sentences can often amount to just 25 years behind bars, so for sake of clarification, the murderer was sentenced to over 2,300 months in a cell. That’s 191 years. In other words, they will never walk this earth as a free person a single day in their immediate lifetime. Aside from the death penalty, justice was most definitely served.
I’m referring to the murderer as anything other than their name because I want the memory of their existence to fade away with the passage of time. Instead, I want to remember the lives that were tragically lost far too soon on November 19: Raymond Vance, age 22, Daniel Aston, age 28, Ashley Paugh, age 35, Derrick Rump, age 38, and Kelly Loving, age 40. May they rest in peace.
The Club Q shooting case came to a close in just seven months, which has spared the survivors and the victims’ families weeks of suffering. According to CBS News, some of their victims’ statements called the shooter a “monster” and damned him to Hell. Hey, can’t say I disagree there! Although the shooter plead guilty and appeared remorseful in jailhouse phone calls, they often touted themself as “The Next Mass Serial Killer” prior to their rampage. They also had previous, violent encounters with family members and police officers – mostly over stockpiling weapons.
Although this is another case of America failing its people, especially in terms of gun control laws, I want to applaud the survivors who actually fought back and stopped the murderer before he could take any more lives. Reports state that veteran Richard Fierro attacked the killer first before being aided in the battle by three other patrons. Let’s not forget why you don’t fuck with the gays. On 9/11, Mark Kendall Bingham, a gay man, was one of the first people to fight the hijackers intending to crash the plane in Washington DC.
I cannot wait for the day when mass shootings and crimes against gay people are a thing of the past. Until then, let’s keep the memory of our fallen brothers and sisters with us as we fight for freedom and the right to live happily.
Source: CBS News