Drag Race star Carmen Carrera recounts experience at deadly nightclub shooting: ‘I can’t believe this’
RuPaul’s Drag Race star Carmen Carrera recounts nightclub shooting experience.(Getty/Pinknews)
RuPaul’s Drag Race star Carmen Carrera has shared her experience of being caught up in a deadly Miami Beach nightclub shooting on Sunday (7 May).
Carmen Carrera is a trans model and trans rights activist best known for placing fifth on season three of the hit drag series RuPaul’s Drag Race – and for her subsequent criticism of RuPaul and the wider franchise as being transphobic and trans-exclusionary.
The 38-year-old reality star spoke out on Twitter yesterday to share her shocking experience of escaping a shooting which took place in South Florida’s high-end nightclub, GALA Miami lounge. The lounge describes itself as a “premier ultra lounge offering a private high end luxury experience to our highly exclusive clientele”.
“So I just experienced my first night club shooting,” Carrera, who escaped unharmed, wrote on social media.
“Fabolous [American rapper] and J Balvin [Colombian singer] were both in the building, it was a high end club. As the entire club ducks down, I grabbed my girlfriends and jet out the door.
“I cannot believe this is the reality of the world that we live in today.”
The shooting, which happened at around 4am local time, left one man dead – identified as musician Everybody Knows Lo, full name Lowell Grissom. Two women were also injured, according to local news reports.
Carrera shared her condolences to the family of up and coming late musician Lo, writing on Twitter: “I’ve seen him around a lot and he’s always been a genuinely friendly person to me.
“Sending prayers to his family and loved ones.”
On Instagram, she added: “RIP Lo, you were always so nice to me even though I never knew you in person, just in passing. After seeing you last night I can’t believe you are gone today.”
Condolences have begun to flood Lo’s own social media channels.
There is currently no information on who the perpetrator is or their motivation. GALA lounge also released a statement, saying they are “deeply saddened and shocked” by the tragic event.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by an isolated and targeted incident that occurred last night at our upscale establishment,” GLALA Miami wrote. “Our condolences are with the family and friends of the victim during this time.”
Although this specific incident does not have a known motivation, gun violence is a huge issue facing the LGBTQ+ community in the US, highlighted by the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting and more recently, the Colorado Springs shooting which left five dead in November 2022.
A growing LGBTQ+ gun reform movement seeks to hold the US government to account, such as non-violent direct action group Gays Against Guns.
“Nothing short of an outright assault weapons ban, as we had from 1994 to 2004, will make a dent in these massacres like Pulse, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Buffalo, Uvalde, and so many others.
“That will be a major focus of Gays Against Guns’s activism for the foreseeable future,” they told PinkNews last year.
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