The 22-year-old suspect who allegedly killed five and wounded 17 others after opening fire inside a gay nightclub in Colorado just before midnight Saturday is facing charges on ten counts, including five counts of bias-motivated crimes.

The gunman, who will not be named per Daily Wire policy about not giving notoriety to mass killers, opened fire inside Club Q in Colorado Springs, which describes itself online as an “adult-oriented gay and lesbian nightclub hosting theme nights such as karaoke, drag shows & DJs.”

The suspected gunman was detained and taken into custody shortly after the attack.

Local media reports authorities said the shooter faces five counts of first-degree murder after deliberation and five counts of a bias-motivated crime that caused bodily injury. Prosecutors suggest the shooting is considered a hate crime based on the bias-motivated crime charge.

District Attorney Michael Allen said the gunman could be released from the hospital Monday and appear in court as early as Monday or Tuesday.

Police said the suspected gunman entered the venue with a long rifle and immediately began shooting. At least two patrons inside the club confronted and stopped the shooter, authorities said.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said, “their actions clearly saved lives,” while Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez described them as “heroic.”

Club Q management said the establishment is “devastated by the senseless attack on our community.”

“Our prays (sic), and thoughts are with all the victims and their families and friends. We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack,” the establishment’s management said.

Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, the country’s first openly gay governor, said the shooting was “horrific, sickening, and devastating.”

“We are eternally grateful for the brave individuals who blocked the gunman, likely saving lives in the process, and for the first responders who responded swiftly to this horrific shooting. Colorado stands with our LGBTQ Community and everyone impacted by this tragedy as we mourn.”

Left-wing corporate media pundits and politicians have attempted to link the mass shooting last weekend to those who oppose progressive social agendas in the United States.

Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert offered prayers for the victims and their families in a tweet following the mass shooting.

“The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful,” Boebert said. “This morning the victims & their families are in my prayers. This lawless violence needs to end and end quickly.”

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to Boebert’s statement claiming she “played a major role in elevating anti-LGBT+ hate rhetoric and anti-trans lies while spending your time in Congress blocking even the most common sense gun safety laws.”

“You don’t get to “thoughts and prayers” your way out of this,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Look inward and change.”

.@laurenboebert you have played a major role in elevating anti-LGBT+ hate rhetoric and anti-trans lies while spending your time in Congress blocking even the most common sense gun safety laws.

You don’t get to “thoughts and prayers” your way out of this. Look inward and change. https://t.co/mxt6wFMVEv

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 20, 2022

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office arrested and booked the gunman in June 2021 on two counts of felony menacing and three first-degree kidnapping charges in connection to a bomb threat, leading to a standoff at his mother’s home in Colorado Springs.

According to the sheriff’s office, deputies responded to a report by the shooter’s mother alleging he was “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition.” Authorities did not find any explosives in the home.

pic.twitter.com/NvC2txCRaA

— Mostly Peaceful Memes (@MostlyPeacefull) November 21, 2022

Howard Black, a spokesman for the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, declined to comment to NPR on whether any charges were pursued.

Greg Wilson contributed to this report. 

In New York and California, institutions of higher education bought into wokeness wholesale years ago, but now schools in red states have been infected as well.

In Texas and Florida, several prominent schools have made diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) a priority.

The University of Texas at Austin has been on a years-long journey to appease students demanding the school double down on DEI initiatives.

Austin is a blue area in red Texas, so it’s not a complete surprise that the dogma of DEI has taken hold there. However, it signals that red states are not immune to their local universities foisting woke values on their young people and communities.

Back in 2018, UT-Austin released a seven-page DEI plan responding to student demands. In 2020, students presented the school with yet another slate of demands, including that Austin police be removed from campus, that admissions adopt a test-optional admissions process, and that the school require students to learn about the “racist background” of the university’s origins.

UT-Austin responded with a new 29-page DEI plan, and since then the school has implemented DEI in various ways.

In one example, the reading list published by the medical school’s Associate Dean for Health Equity includes titles by authors who are essentially the patron saints of woke. The list includes “How To Be An Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi and “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo as well as an essay called “White Privilege: Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack.”

“Racism contributes to health inequity,” the associate dean writes.

UT-Austin has also embedded DEI into its tenure and promotion policies, saying that each school will “develop mechanisms for evaluating faculty contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion in their units for considerations of merit and promotion,” according to UT-Austin’s strategic plan for faculty DEI.

In addition, new faculty positions are infused with DEI.

UT-Austin’s Religious Studies department is currently hiring an early Christianity scholar to research topics including the “religious identities” of “sexual minorities” and “feminist and intersectional interpretation of biblical texts.”

UT-Austin is not the only prominent school in Texas that has embraced DEI.

The Texas A&M system, whose flagship school is the state’s oldest public university, has fully integrated DEI policies as well.

Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences recently hired an Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence. The school is also requiring each department to establish a “climate committee.” Texas A&M’s dentistry school has an entire Diversity and Inclusion Plan of its own that actually cites UT-Austin’s plan as a resource. In 2020, Texas A&M’s School of Education & Human Development (SEHD) created an “Equity & Social Justice Collective.”

Yet another Texas school, Texas Tech University, has strict rules for its biology department on evaluating faculty candidates based on how they talk about diversity.

The department must take into account whether faculty candidates “discuss diversity in vague terms,” “seem uncomfortable discussing diversity-related issues,” or seem unaware of “personal challenges that underrepresented individuals face in academia.”

In Florida, where the Republican governor cruised to victory by double digits this month, DEI is pervasive at many schools.

The University of Central Florida has an active DEI office that includes a “land acknowledgement,” essentially a statement acknowledging that the university’s land traditionally belongs to Native American tribes.

The University of Florida, where retiring Republican Senator Ben Sasse will take over as university president next year, has a DEI office and strategy as well.

The school’s Office of the Chief Diversity Officer boasts that University of Florida has more than 1,000 unique DEI initiatives.

Unless a school is specifically counter-cultural, as some private religious liberal arts colleges are, it is likely to have invested heavily in DEI, even if the school is in a red state.

Texas and Florida may be red, but their universities are very much not.