(CNN) — As Colorado Springs residents and leaders embrace the 17 injured and other survivors of the Colorado Springs Q Club shooting, the families of the five fatalities begin to remember their lives and the emptiness they leave.
Colorado Springs Police Department identified the 5 victims as:
- Raymond Green Vance (he/she)
- Kelly Loving (ella/ella)
- Daniel Aston (he/he)
- Derrick Rump (he/he)
- Ashley Paugh (ella/ella)
Some of the victims worked at Club Q, while others had come to the venue to enjoy the nightly festivities.
These are their stories.
Derrick Rump
Derrick Rump found a community he loved at Club Q, his sister said.
Rump’s sister, Julia Kissling, confirmed his identity to CNN and one of its affiliates.
Rump, who worked as a bartender at Club Q, had “found a community of people that he loved very much, and he felt like he might shine there, and he did,” Kissling told CNN affiliate WFMZ. “He made a difference to so many people’s lives, and that’s where he wanted to be,” he added.
Tiara Kelly, who showed up at the club the night before the shooting, told CNN that Rump and his co-worker Daniel Aston “were polar opposites in a lot of ways, but they worked really well together. They were just amazing, and every bar should have a Daniel and a Derrick.”
Daniel Aston
Aston’s parents confirmed his identity to the newspaper The Denver Post. The 28-year-old was a bar supervisor at Club Q, said bartender Michael Anderson, who had known Aston for some years and considered him a friend.
On the night of the shooting, Anderson saw the gunman and ducked behind the bar where he and Aston were working as glass fell around them, he told CNN on Monday. He thought he was going to die, he prayed and as he moved to escape the scene, he saw two people he didn’t know punching and kicking the attacker, he said.
Anderson was devastated to learn later that Aston had not made it out of the bar, which the Colorado Springs LGBTQ community considered a safe space.
“He was the best supervisor anyone might have asked for. It made me want to go to work and it made me want to be a part of the positive culture that we were trying to create there,” Anderson said.
He added that Aston was an “incredible person. He was a light in my life and it’s surreal that we’re even talking regarding him in the past tense like this.”
Aston moved to Colorado Springs two years ago to be closer to her mother and father, parents Jeff and Sabrina Aston told The Denver Post. The club was a few minutes from their house, and following one of Daniel’s friends told them that he had been shot, they rushed to the emergency room, only to discover that he had never arrived.
Daniel Aston was 4 when he told his mother he was a boy, and it was another decade before he came out as transgender, his mother told the newspaper. He thought he was shy, but that wasn’t the case, she said. He never met a stranger, not even when he was a child.
“He had so much more life to give to us, to all his friends and to himself,” he told The Denver Post.
“He always said, ‘I’m shy,’ but he wasn’t. He wrote poetry. He loved to dress up. He got into drama workshop in high school. He is an artist. That’s what he really loved.”
Ashley Paugh
Ashley Paugh was one of the victims who died in the shooting this Saturday at Club Q.
Ashley Paugh’s family issued a statement on her behalf Monday, saying they are “absolutely devastated.”
“We are absolutely devastated by the loss of Ashley. She meant the world to this family, and we can’t even begin to understand what it will mean to not have her in our lives,” he read in the statement.
Paugh had a daughter, Ryleigh, who meant the world to her, according to the family’s words.
“She loved her dad, her sister and her family; Ashley was a loving aunt, with many nieces and nephews who are devastated by the loss of her,” her loved ones continued.
“She would have done anything for the children – traveling throughout southeastern Colorado, from Pueblo and Colorado Springs to Fremont County and the Colorado border, working to raise awareness and encourage individuals and families to become adoptive parents. of children in our community,” he said.
Paugh also worked with the LGBTQ community to find welcoming places of passage.
He also loved being outdoors and enjoying activities such as hunting, fishing and four-wheeling, the statement read.
Kelly Loving
Kelly Loving was described by her sister as loving, caring and sweet.
Tiffany Loving, sister of Kelly Loving, another victim of the Club Q shooting, issued a brief statement Monday.
“My condolences go out to all the families who lost someone in this tragic event and to all who are struggling to be accepted in this world. My sister was a good person. She was loving, caring and sweet. They all loved her. Kelly was a wonderful person,” Tiffany Loving said in the statement to CNN.
Raymond Green Vance was another of the victims of the shooting last Saturday.
Saturday was the first time Raymond Green Vance, 22, visited Club Q. He was accompanied by his longtime girlfriend, her parents and some of his parents’ friends, his family said in a statement to CNN.
They were celebrating a birthday, according to the statement. Among the people Vance was dining with was Richard M. Fierro, the man who subdued the alleged shooter, according to a Facebook post by his wife Jessica Fierro.
“Unfortunately, he never left the club. Raymond was the victim of a man who unleashed terror on innocent people with family and friends,” the statement from Vance’s family read. “His own family and friends of his are completely devastated by the sudden loss of a son, grandson, brother, nephew and cousin loved by so many.”
Vance had just landed a new job at a FedEx distribution center in Colorado Springs and “was thrilled to have received his first paycheck.”
“He mightn’t wait to save enough money to have his own apartment, but in the meantime he lived with his mother and younger brother who adored him,” the statement read. “Raymond was a kind and selfless young adult with his whole life ahead of him. His closest friend describes him as talented, one of a kind, and willing to go out of his way to help anyone.”
He spent most of his free time with his girlfriend, whom he had been with since high school, his family said. He also played video games and hoped to turn that into an online career, according to his statement.
A minute of silence
Colorado Springs Police Department Chief Adrián Vásquez offered a moment of silence in honor of those who died
Vásquez said that society often loses track of the victims when it focuses on the suspect in the crime. In that sense, he asked that “everyone in the community honor each victim.”
After the moment of silence for the victims, Vásquez said the department is continuing its investigation to seek justice for the victims.
CNN’s Don Lemon and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.
