One year after Club Q shooting, survivors struggle with pain, trauma and unpaid medical bills

The Colorado Springs community is still struggling with grief, pain and trauma one year after the deadly mass shooting at Club Q.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Sprinkled with handwritten notes, stuffed animals and flowers, a memorial honoring the five victims killed and dozens injured last November still stands along the rainbow facade of the now-shuttered Club Q. The silence at the site ahead of the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting evoked the community’s grief as it struggles to move forward amid lingering tension.

The queer community here is splintered, divided over Club Q ownership’s goal of reopening what was once a safe and accepting space for LGBTQ residents. Survivors of the shooting also say they’re concerned that the venue’s management team is prioritizing profit over reuniting the community. Meanwhile, as the injured are still healing — physically and emotionally — they say donations intended for them were distributed too slowly and with considerable red tape.

“The community still feels loss, and I think the community still feels lost,” survivor Wyatt Kent told NBC News.

Club Q, the LGBTQ venue that was the site of a deadly shooting that killed five people last year, in Colorado Springs, Colo., on June 7.Chet Strange / APKent, who uses both he and they pronouns, was a drag performer at Club Q and lost their boyfriend, bartender Daniel Aston, in the shooting. They said trust has dissolved between what they say is a majority of the former staffers and regulars at Club Q on one side, and the Club Q ownership team and the handful of survivors who are now working with them on the other.

Many survivors of the Nov. 19, 2022, shooting, including Kent, said they are uncomfortable with the idea of Club Q reopening in any form, whether it be at the original location or a new location. For months, they’ve been protesting the ownership’s decision to reopen, saying it would force them to relive the trauma of watching a gunman open fire on what was once their safe space.