Jeff Aston sits in his Colorado Springs, Colo., home on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. His 28-year-old son, Daniel Aston, was one of five people killed when a gunman opened fire in a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs on Saturday night. – On a typical night at the Club Q, a bastion for LGBTQ people in the largely conservative city of Colorado Springs, Daniel Aston could be seen letting loose and sliding across the stage on his knees tailed by his mullet to whoops and hollers.
“We are in shock, we cried for a little bit, but then you go through this phase where you are just kind of numb, and I’m sure it will hit us again,” she said. “I keep thinking it’s a mistake, they made a mistake, and that he is really alive," she added. After coming out to his mother, he attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and became president of its LGBTQ club. He put on fundraisers with ever-more flashy productions and fanned over '80s hair bands.
Members of Colorado Spring's LGBTQ community say Club Q has been one of only a few havens where they could be fully authentic in one of the state's more conservative metros. Sabrina Aston said that's why her son took to the club; it gave his identity room to breathe and"he liked helping the LGBT community."