COLORADO SPRINGS — November 19th will mark one year since the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs that took five innocent lives and wounded many more. It has had a profound impact on the community, including local law enforcement.
On Thursday News5 sat down with Colorado Springs Police Chief, Adrian Vazquez to learn more about the events that took place that night and what his message is for victims.
Chief Vasquez said this shooting caused lots of fear and hurt to the city.
As the one-year remembrance of the Club Q shooting nears he wants people to know the police stand with the LGBTQ-plus community.
On the night of November 19th, 2022 the Colorado Springs Police Department received several calls of a shooting inside Club Q.
“Our officers arrived very quickly. The knowledge they had at that time was that, from those phone calls. There were several people that had been shot and it was an active shooter situation,” Vazquez said.
Chief Vasquez said he is proud of how his department handled the situation.
“The moment they started their movement to the moment they actually had the suspect in custody, it was really quick it was about a minute,” Vazquez said.
Chief Vazquez said once the suspect was in custody, officers began to provide first aid to people who were injured.
“Immediately after, they also carry trauma kits, all of our officers do. So they were inside the building providing trauma care, medical care to the victims in this situation,” Vazquez said.
He said multiple hospitals were notified very quickly by their dispatch center.
“We had a lot of people that had been shot, an unknown amount at that point in time, but to expect people coming to whatever hospital we could get them to as quickly as possible,” Vazquez said.
Chief Vazquez said the Colorado Springs Fire Department was a huge help.
“Getting fire in there to help and AMR to transport. But fire rigs, we're transporting, we transported some in police cars just to get them to the hospital as soon as we could,” Vazquez said.
According to Vazquez, his department was prepared because of proper training as well as past experiences. He noted that unfortunately, Club Q wasn't the city's first mass shooting.
Every police officer began carrying a small trauma kit with them after the 2015 mass shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood.
“What are they carrying on them? The medical trauma kits have come out of that, so the police foundation has provided all of our officers with a smaller trauma kit,” Vazquez said.
Chief Vazquez said after incidents, like mass shootings, law enforcement spends many hours debriefing the entire situation.
“We think about policy changes, what equipment do we now need, we think about what type of training do we need or should we add or should we maintain the same training because it was very effective,” Vazquez said
He said through their evaluation of Club Q they believe their current training properly prepared officers.
“The speed at which they responded, the speed at which they entered that building, the speed at which they started caring for all of those victims in there. To you know weeks after our investigators and victims' advocates did such an amazing job,” Vazquez said.
One thing they did notice was that they needed to invest in more equipment.
“These larger trauma kits that have a lot of more medical and care items in it, so that when we do hit these larger events you can grab them out of the sergeant vehicles and bring them in and you’ll have supplies that can carry you forward until medical staff gets there,” Vazquez said.
The chief said the scene was disturbing for many officers and victims.
“They saw something that we're pretty traumatic and they saw some horrific things,” Vazquez said.
They have started a partnership with behavioral health specialists to offer more support and resources.
“We're really working with behavioral health specialists and other partners to provide those resources in a better way and more consistently outside of a critical incident because that's what they need. That's not necessarily a police response, but it came out of a police response,” Vazquez said.
Vazquez shared his praise and appreciation for all the community partners and organizations his department has worked with over this past year.
Diversus Health in Colorado Springs is currently offering free therapy to people impacted by the Club Q shooting.
Vazquez said his message to victims of the Club Q shooting is that the police department supports them.
“I hope they see that we the police department are really standing beside them, moving forward we are still here and still going to be there for them,” Vazquez said.
The police will be at the one-year remembrance ceremony of Club Q. Vazquez said they have been paying close attention and they are doing everything they can to make sure it is a safe event. The ceremony will be held at noon on November 19th at Club Q.
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