COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR) – It’s been one week since a person opened fire inside a gay nightclub in Colorado springs and families of victims are still reeling with the emotions.
What started as a text in the family group chat of a night out dancing turned bone-chilling for Mark Slaugh “I looked over at my phone and the last message I saw around midnight was there was a shooting, oh my god we’ve been shot.”
Mark’s two siblings, Charlene and James, as well as James’s boyfriend had all been shot.
James’s boyfriend was shot once in the thigh, causing minor issues. James was hit in the chest, shattering his shoulder. Charlene sustained the worst injuries, having been shot an estimated 13 times.
Mark said she’s undergone surgery every day this week, though she has her sights set on recovery, adding “she got shot up really badly and she’s determined to not let that stop her. She said I have life goals and I have to get out of here so I can go back to them.”
Like the Slaugh family, shock is continuing to set in for those affected “I think the hardest part is even after the physical wounds heal you have these tremendous emotional and psychological wounds that are gonna haunt them the rest of their lives,” Mark said.
LGBTQ+ leaders like Leslie Herod, said we must do better.
“This was an act of terror and an act of hate. A lot of these shootings across the country stem from hate. This hateful rhetoric. This dehumanization of people makes folks feel like it’s okay to take multiple people’s lives. It’s gotta stop. We as elected officials have to do more, but also we as a community have so much more work to do.”
To donate to the Slaugh family, they have a GoFundMe set up here. You can find ways to help the rest of the Club Q victims here.