Mass Shooting in Colorado Springs Leaves Five Dead, 18 Injured

COLORADO SPRINGS (AP/Hamodia) – An attacker opened fire in Colorado Springs, CO, killing five people and wounding 18, officials said Sunday. Reports from the scene say that the suspect was subdued by patrons.

Authorities received a report of a shooting at 11:57 p.m. Saturday and responded within minutes, said Lt. Pamela Castro of the Colorado Springs Police Department.

The violence is the sixth mass killing this month and comes in a year when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has been briefed on the shooting, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said. The FBI said it was providing assistance to Colorado Springs police, but said the police department was leading the investigation.

The police department planned a news conference for 8 a.m. (10 a.m. EST) on the investigation.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said the news was “sickening.”.

“My heart breaks for the family and friends of those lost, injured, and traumatized in this horrific shooting. I have spoken with Mayor (John) Suthers and clarified that every state resource is available to local law enforcement in Colorado Springs,” Polis said.

The shooting occurred in a state that has experienced several notorious mass killings, including at Columbine High School in 1999, a hall in suburban Denver in 2012 and at a Boulder supermarket last year.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California said on Twitter he was “sickened and horrified” by the shooting, adding that “devastating attacks like these will only become more common if we don’t fight back. It must stop.”

There have been 523 mass killings since 2006 resulting in 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19, according to The Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the U.S.