(NewsNation) — As Colorado Springs authorities continue to investigate the shooter’s motive following a deadly shooting in an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, the community is grieving.
John Loveall’s son Jericho Loveall is one of the 25 victims injured at Club Q. He told NewsNation his son is doing “okay.”
“I would say the shock is worn off. What’s happened to him and the people that he was close to, as was mentioned Derek and Daniel, he knew them very well; he’s known him for years,” John said. “So the loss of them and the others that were lost, is starting to hit him pretty good.”
Derrick Rump and Daniel Aston are two of the five victims killed in Saturday’s shooting. Aston, a 28-year-old transgender man and the self-proclaimed “Master of Silly Business,” had performed and bartended at Club Q, a place his mother said allowed Aston to be himself.
John told NewsNation that Rump was one of the patrons who jumped in front of the alleged gunman, Andeson Lee Aldrich, to try and save people’s lives.
“My understanding, the way Jericho put it, was Derrick put himself basically in the line of fire enough to allow others to get hold of him from behind and disarm him and take him to the ground,” John explained.
At least two people are credited with charging Aldrich, grabbing his gun, hitting him with it, and pinning him down until officers arrived. Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said patrons who intervened during the attack were “heroic” and owed a debt of gratitude for preventing more deaths.
John said he was on the phone with his son the moment Jericho realized he had been shot.
“At about that point is when they realize he’d actually been shot, up to that point he didn’t know he’d been shot,” he recalled. “As he realized that, fortunately, he pointed out was he thought he’d been shot in the leg at that point.”
Jericho was at the club with his wife and her friends. John said they were out in the smoking area at the time and were one of the few who weren’t directly in the club during the shooting.
Allen told NewsNation that the suspect should be released from the hospital Monday, and he could appear in court Monday or Tuesday. Charges against the suspect will likely include first-degree murder, he said.