A woman who was out for a night of dancing with her brother was left with 13 bullet holes in her body after being wounded in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, family say.
Charlene Slaugh, 35, and her brother James Slaugh were preparing to leave Club Q on Saturday night when a gunman opened fire, killing five and wounding 25 others, according to a GoFundme page set up by friends to support the family.
Charlene was shot at least once in the abdomen and suffered a collapsed lung. She is recovering after undergoing surgery and faces a long recovery, according to the fundraiser.
“She’s packed with military gauze for now and stable, but they identified 13 holes so far from one or more bullets,” reads the GoFundMe.
Her brother James was shot in the shoulder and was due to undergo surgery on Sunday night. His partner was shot in the legs, the GoFundme page states: “James and his partner met at Club Q and always considered it a safe space.”
The suspected shooter was identified by Colorado Springs police on Sunday as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich.
The siblings’ mother died from Covid a year ago and Charlene Slaugh had recently been through a painful relationship breakup, according to the GoFundme page.
“They went out for a fun night of dancing at Club Q,” the page explains of the night of the attack. “They were preparing to leave when shots were fired.”
According to Colorado Springs police chief Adrian Vasquez, the suspect began firing as soon as he entered the nightclub just before midnight on Saturday.
Several “heroic” clubgoers confronted the gunman and overpowered him, Mr Vasquez said at a news conference on Sunday morning.
Two AR-15-style weapons were used in the attack.
