‘He was living his dream’: Mother recalls former Lehigh Valley area resident who was killed in Club Q mass shooting in Colorado

The mother of Derrick W. Rump, a former Berks County resident who was killed during the Saturday night mass shooting at a Colorado gay bar, remembered him Monday for his kindness to others.

“Whenever my daughter and I needed help, he was there for us and lifted our spirits,” Julia Rump said, speaking by telephone from her Berks home, more than one day after learning from authorities about her son’s death.

Derrick Rump, 38, was a bartender and co-owner of Club Q in Colorado Springs, site of the mass shooting where four others were killed and 18 others were injured.

“He was living his dream,” Julia Rump said. “He just wanted everybody to live their dreams like he did. Don’t stop; keep going.”

Kindness and other traits were common themes among those who remembered Rump, according to the Denver Post.

Bryant “Tip” Ragan told the Post Rump had a personality that was “always very sunshiny, warm and generous.”

Ragan, who teaches early modern European history at Colorado College, said he would see Rump around campus regularly in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic when Rump worked for the university’s catering service, Bon Appétit.

“He was also a little shy and a little retiring, but he was so curious and had a good sense of humor,” Ragan said.

Rump helped cater multiple events at Ragan’s home and acted as a steadying presence to those around him. The professor described himself as a “very nervous kind of person,” but noted that Rump helped take that edge off before parties when they chatted about Rump’s home in Pennsylvania and other topics.

“We would be waiting for guests and I’d be ramped up and worried,” Ragan said. “Derrick would come up to me, immediately pour me a glass of wine, and tell me, ‘Tip, you can calm down, we’re going to take it from here, everything will be fine.’

“And I knew it would be,” he said.

Rump, whose Facebook page has since been memorialized, was a 2002 graduate of Kutztown Area Senior High School.

“It is with great sadness that the Kutztown community grieves the loss of Derrick Rump,” the school said in a statement Monday. “In his time at KASD, Derrick was a quiet, kind, helpful, cooperative student who loved art and music. He enjoyed the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, math, and was a student who was well thought of by his peers and teachers.

“Tragedies like this are hard to process and comprehend. Senseless violence taken against innocent bystanders and unsuspecting victims has become all too common in our society. Derrick will forever be a reminder of this for the Kutztown community.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the extended Rump family in this time of loss,” the school said. “Please join us in teaching our kids the value of human life and creating a future where violence of this nature is unheard of.”

Julia Rump said her son grew up in the Kempton and Kutztown areas. He had been living in Colorado the past decade, she said.

The family is still mourning the loss of another son, Dustin, who died several months ago, Julia Rump said. Among the survivors are another brother, David Jr., and a sister, Julia Kissling.

In Colorado, Derrick Rump worked as a bartender at Club Q, friend Jessi Hazelwood told the Denver Post.

He was known for making a particular expression with his eyebrows — “one eyebrow all the way up in the middle of his forehead,” she said.

Hazelwood described him as initially shy, but outgoing after he warmed up. “He’s very soulful. Very understanding of other people’s situations,” she said.

Alex Gallagher, 20, passed out tissues to mourners at the memorial outside of Club Q on Monday morning. Gallagher, who uses she/they pronouns, frequented the club and left Saturday night about 20 minutes before the shooting.

Rump and fellow bartender Daniel Aston “were in the hospital; they were supposed to be getting better,” she said. Both of them died.

Gallagher and other friends met at a church Sunday to honor Rump and Aston. She described Rump’s “tough love” attitude, with a spicy streak.

Keairra Barron, 24, “woke up to everybody texting me” about the shooting. She told the Denver Post she was a friend of Rump and Aston.

At the roadside memorial Monday, a tearful Barron recalled that “Derrick was one of the first people that I first met coming” to Club Q.

She remembered his humor and sassy side, adding that he “was always there when I needed somebody to talk to.”

When she ran into financial troubles, “he’d help me out — pay for my food or whatever I needed.”

About two years ago, Barron met Aston, who would join her in her “escapades” — and “then, Derrick would always be in the background, telling us to stop,” she said with a laugh.

“If you haven’t had the chance to meet them, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m pretty sure you would have loved them, too.”

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, allegedly began shooting just before midnight Saturday. He was stopped when a patron grabbed a handgun from Aldrich, hit him with it and pinned him down until police arrived minutes later, according to The Associated Press. He was preliminarily charged Monday with five counts of murder and five counts of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, according to the AP.

Officials on Monday said that 18 people were hurt, including 17 who suffered gunshot wounds.

Club Q is a gay and lesbian nightclub that features a drag show on Saturdays, according to its website. Club Q’s Facebook page said planned entertainment included a “punk and alternative show” preceding a birthday dance party, with a Sunday all-ages drag brunch.