Authorities in Colorado Springs identified the five victims who were fatally wounded at a gay nightclub over the weekend.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez identified them on Nov. 21 as: Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance.
In announcing their names, Vasquez said he hoped to take attention away from the suspect and refocus it on the victims.
Vasquez held a moment of silence and said that officers and detectives would diligently work for the victims’ families to hold the alleged assailant accountable.
Paugh's family told NBC News on Nov. 21 that she was a loving mother who left behind a husband and an 11-year-old daughter.
“My niece is devastated,” Paugh's sister Stephanie Clark said, adding that Paugh “lived for her daughter.”
“It just doesn’t seem real,” Clark said. “We’re heartbroken. We’re sad. We’re mad, angry.”
Clark added that Paugh had been on a day trip to Colorado Springs with a friend and was not a member of the LGBTQ community.
“Nothing will ever be the same without her,” Clark told NBC News. “Right now, I don’t want to laugh. She was a loving, caring person who would do anything for anybody. We’re gonna miss her so much.”
Another victim, Club Q bartender Daniel Aston, 28, was mourned by his former college on Nov. 21. Northeastern State University confirmed his "tragic murder" in a statement.
Dan P. Mabery, the vice president for university relations, said in a statement that Aston had attended the Tahlequah, Oklahoma, school for a year, starting in the fall of 2014. He'd been "very active" in the school's LGBTQ community, Mabery said.
Aston's mother told the Associated Press that she'd rushed to the hospital when she learned of her son's condition, but he died Sunday morning.
“I keep thinking it’s just, it’s a mistake,” she told the AP. “They’ve made a mistake and that he’s really alive.”
In addition to the five who were fatally wounded in the shooting, at least 25 more were injured. The suspect is in custody, police said, after being stopped by two good Samaritans. He's facing five counts of first-degree murder and five bias crimes, prosecutors said.