Arrest made over sick threat to LGBTQ-inclusive club days after Club Q shooting
Chase Staub was arrested at his home on terrorist threats. (Fulton County Jail)
An individual has been arrested for making a threat against a pro-LGBTQ+ club just days after the Club Q shooting.
Chase Staub was arrested on 24 November after making multiple threats against the LGBTQ-inclusive venue Heretic Atlanta over social media and in person.
Atlanta police were initially notified about the disturbance on Wednesday (23 November) when employees told officers that someone had been making threatening remarks towards the bar on social media.
In a statement, officials said that the employees had “observed threatening remarks made towards their establishment on social media,” one of which included the use of a pepper spray gun.
The threat that was initially made against the club appears to have been removed by Staub or an associate.
After just a day, investigators responded to calls from employees at another LGBTQ+ bar on Piedmont Road saying that a man, later identified as Staub entered the bar, made several threatening remarks, and was told to leave.
“The person appeared to be the same individual involved in making biased terroristic threats,” a spokesperson added.
Staub was arrested at his home address after speaking with police about the threats made against Heretic, who eventually found a pepper spray gun believed to be involved in the threatening video.
He was charged with terroristic threats, taken into custody, and eventually transported to Fulton County Jail.
Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, where Chase Staub currently resides. (Getty)
The arrest comes just days after five people were killed and several more injured in the Colorado Springs Club Q shooting.
Suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich – whose lawyers have said uses they/them pronouns – opened fire in the LGBTQ+ club during a Drag event on 19 November.
They were arrested and taken into custody after a trans woman and a military veteran beat them into submission.
Several people, including president Joe Biden, have expressed their sympathies toward those who were affected by the tragedy.
Others have blamed the influx of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric by far-right figures for creating an atmosphere of hate against queer people.
Club Q co-creator Nic Grzecka said to the Associated Press that politicians “relating a drag queen to a groomer” has created a “new type of hate” which makes it difficult for queer people to exist in public.
“I would rather be spit on in the street than get the hate as bad as where we are today,” he said.
