A army veteran as well as a transgender woman are being praised after confronting the gunman in the Saturday night shooting in an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Richard Fierro, 45, a former army major, never thought he would need to use his combat skills while in a nightclub, but that is what happened on Saturday.
Fierro, his wife, their daughter, and his daughter’s friends were celebrating a birthday at Club Q in Colorado Springs when a gunman, later identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, entered the club and opened fire.
Fierro described how he immediately went into fight mode once the bullets started flying. He quickly went into action and knew he had to fight the gunman before he and his family got killed.
Fierro, who had served in the army for 15 years and did three Iraq tours and one Afghanistan tour, said his training instincts kicked in.
When he saw the gunman, he made a split-second decision to tackle him. Fierro immediately ran toward the gunman and managed to pull him down.
After tackling Aldrich, a transgender woman, Thomas James, came to his aid and quickly moved the AR-15-style rifle out of the way.
Unfortunately, by the time Fierro and James got to him, Aldrich had already shot and killed five people and injured seventeen others.
Despite his heroic actions, Fierro told reporters that he was very sad that he did not get to save the lives of the five deceased people.
While speaking during a news conference about the incident, John Suthers, Colorado Springs Mayor, hailed Fierro as a hero, saying he had never encountered someone who had done such a heroic action and was still humble about it.
Speaking to CNN, Fierro said that his wife and daughter should never have experienced combat in Colorado Springs and that the gunman had forced people to go through battle, which is always a very traumatic experience.
After tackling Aldrich to the ground, Fierro noticed that the gunman also had a pistol. He grabbed it and hit Aldrich with it, shouting to Aldrich that he would kill him.
Thomas James hit Aldrich with high heel shoes.
Fierro received a call from President Biden thanking him for his actions that night. Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Spokesperson, confirmed that Biden had called Fierro, thanking him for his instinct to act and his courage, which saved many lives.
One of the people who lost his life was the boyfriend of Fierro’s daughter, Raymond Green Vance, 22. His family described him as a selfless young adult who was also kind.
Fierro will get a $5,000 reward for his heroism from the League of Latin American Citizens.
The 22-year-old shooter, who is the grandson of California State Representative Randy Voepel, was described as a homophobe and a gun enthusiast. Aldrich faced kidnapping and menacing charges in 2021 after threatening his mother, but the charges were dropped.
Aldrich, who is hospitalized due to injuries during the shooting, will make his court appearance after being discharged. Even though formal charges have not yet been filed, he will likely be charged with five counts of first-degree murder, among other crimes.
