The man suspected of opening fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs is facing five charges each of murder and committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury.

The charges come two days after Saturday night’s attack at Club Q that killed five people and left 17 others with gunshot wounds.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, remained in hospital with unspecified injuries, police said.

The charges against him were preliminary and prosecutors were yet to file them in court.

The hate crime charges would require proving the gunman was motivated by bias, such as against the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

The attack was stopped when a patron grabbed a handgun from Aldrich, hit him with it and pinned him down until police arrived minutes later.

A law enforcement official said the suspect used an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon, but a handgun and additional ammunition magazines were also recovered.

Officials on Monday clarified that 18 people were hurt in the attack, not 25 as was originally reported.

Among them was one person whose injury was not a gunshot wound. Another victim had no visible injuries, they said.

Thirteen people are still in hospital, with five people already treated and released.

Questions are being asked about why authorities did not take Aldrich’s guns away from him in 2021, when he was arrested after his mother said he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons.

There is no public record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich.

Saturday’s shooting rekindled memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people.

Colorado has experienced several mass killings, including at Columbine High School in 1999, a movie theatre in suburban Denver in 2012 and at a Boulder supermarket last year.

Detectives were examining whether anyone helped the suspect before the attack.

Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said patrons who intervened during the attack were “heroic” and prevented more deaths.

Club Q is a gay and lesbian nightclub that features a drag show on Saturdays, according to its website.

Drag events have become a focus of anti-LGBTQI rhetoric and protests recently as opponents, including politicians, have proposed banning children from them, falsely claiming that they are used to groom children.

The shooting came during Transgender Awareness Week and just at the start of Sunday’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, when events around the world are held to mourn and remember transgender people lost to violence.

-AAP