Club Q survivors come together 2 years after mass shooting

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Almost two years to the day, survivors from the deadly mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs gathered in a familiar place Sunday afternoon. 

They came with their supporters and loved ones as they laid flowers and candles at the photos of the five victims who died: Ashley Paugh, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump, Kelly Loving and Raymond Green Vance.

“There’s been tears shed of all kinds,” survivor Ashtin Gamblin said. 

Gamblin said the memorial stirred up a lot of emotions, one being hope as she reflected on the burlesque tribute show the club hosted the night before.

“For us, it’s rebuilding this community,” Gamblin said. “And being stronger than what has happened and we’re trying to create new memories and carry on with what everyone would have wanted and for us that is celebrating those birthdays and having those happy moments even when we’re all terribly sad and frustrated. So, we have to keep moving, but celebrating those milestones we would have been celebrating anyway.”

Gamblin said she gained a new family after the shooting. She said it’s nothing like she’s ever had before.

“Where I grew up, I always felt like an outcast,” Gamblin said. “I’m not a [LGBTQ+] community member myself, but even being an ally, I never felt like I fit in and I found my niche here. I found my group. And it’s different having that and being surround by it at all times.”

Her community was there for her when it had been one year since the shooting, she said.

“Several of us went to a bar where we all felt safe,” Gamblin said. “Where it was just us. And when the time hit, we made sure with Derrick and Daniel’s pictures we had fireball shots poured out and sat in silence. We had our own moment.”

Gamblin said she never thought she’d be in a bar after the shooting, but the fact that she and other survivors could do it, she said, spoke volumes.

“And Tuesday, I can’t promise I’ll be in a bar,” Gamblin said. “I can promise I will be with some very close people from this. And I’ll still hold those few moments of silence myself.”

Two years from the shooting, survivor Ed Sanders‘ physical wounds have healed, but he’s still healing in other ways.

“The bullet hit my rib and deflected from my heart and that pretty much saved me from dying that night,” Sanders said.

He said he’s thankful for the people who’ve showered him with love since the shooting.

“This is great to see the support and the support we felt at the time around the world was really helpful,” Sander said. “It really lifted me, my spirits, to know people cared. Not just gay people, but a lot people here in the Springs turned out for us.”

On Sunday, Sanders showed up in the same suit he was wearing the night of the shooting. He called it his “badge of honor.”

“I’m proud of the suit,” Sanders said. “That’s why I’m wearing it today, to remember and honor my friends.”

Sanders said he knew Rump and Aston well and fell with Loving during the shooting. He said he knows they would appreciate people coming together and remembering the good people they were.

“I’m sure they’re here with us now,” Sanders said. “Watching, watching over. Yeah, I feel their presence amongst the other people so they’re not gone. They’re just missing.”

The Prism Community Collective opened an LGBTQ+ resource center earlier this summer with individual rooms named in honor of the people who died in the shooting.

Tuesday and Wednesday, the center said it would be open for extended hours from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. for anyone seeking mental health resources or community support.