TULSA, Okla. — Tributes for Daniel Aston a Tulsa area native are now making their way around social media.
He was working as a bartender at Club Q in Colorado Springs when a gunman opened fire shooting and killing Aston and four others, and injuring dozens more.
Aston's best friend of six years, Tempest Cartwright, tells 2 News Aston loved working at Club Q.
“When he came home recently, he was just talking about how much fun it was and how he was finally getting to be a part of shows,” Cartwright recalls.
One of his favorite memories with Aston was when he visited him in Colorado Springs.
“I had worked with his parents and friends there to surprise him at his job at Club Q. We just spent a whole week going on adventures. He showed me all around Colorado Springs.”
During that trip, they made a deal to wear their matching shirts everywhere they went.
As a transgender man, Daniel Aston was proud of who he was and is a part of the LGBTQ + community and Cartwright says Aston helped others through their journeys.
“He just gave so many people the strength to do so and was always there when they needed him,” he said.
That includes him...
“I’m much more shy and timid. He brought me out of my shell," Cartwright said. "He would force me to be uncomfortable and talk to people when I was too scared to and it always ended up being great.”
He says Aston was the light of the party and had a radiant smile which is something Aston’s mom Sabrina Aston echos.
“He was always smiling, always happy and silly like I said everyone liked seeing him because he brought up the room and lift people up,” Aston said.
Grasping the reality of this loss is something she says is a nightmare you can’t wake up from.
“I keep thinking it's just a mistake, they’ve made a mistake and that he’s really alive," she said.
Now filled with many emotions including anger and sadness, we asked Cartwright, “if you could be faced with the person who committed this crime, what would you say to them?”
“You took the person I love. That’s my other half. I don’t know if I’d ask why. I don’t think there would ever be an answer for that,” he said.
A last-minute candlelight vigil was held at Club Majestic in downtown Tulsa Sunday night but Cartwright tells 2 News he and other friends are working on putting together a bigger vigil soon.
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