By Jessica Schladebeck
Source New York Daily News
When gunfire rang out inside a gay nightclub in Colorado, a U.S. Army veteran relied on years of training, instinct — and help from a heels-wearing drag dancer to take down the shooter and end the violence.
Richard Fierro was enjoying a drag show with his wife, daughter, her boyfriend, and friends before the attack unfolded at Club Q in Colorado Springs. They were at the venue on Saturday to celebrate a birthday and support his daughter’s high school prom date who was performing that night.
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The festivities quickly turned tragic, however, when accused gunman Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, entered the club and opened fire.
Fierro, a 15-year Army vet who owns a local brewery, said he pushed a friend out of harm’s way and hit the ground himself amid the gunfire. The military man scanned the chaos and then spotted the gunman, who’d fled to the patio.
Fierro sprang into action. Cutting through the panicked crowds, he grabbed the shooter by his body armor and then yanked him to the ground. That’s when a nearby drag performer stepped in and used a high-heeled foot to stomp the attacker in the face.
Another patron, Thomas James, was quick to move the rifle out of the gunman’s reach and started kicking him. Fierro, meanwhile, snatched a pistol from the suspect’s hands and then used it to bludgeon him.
“I just know I got into mode, and I needed to save my family — and my family was at that time everybody in that room,” Fierro said during a press conference outside his house.
“That’s what I was trained to do. I saw him and I went and got him.”
Both James and Fierro held the gunman down until authorities arrived on the scene. Fierro, who served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, was briefly handcuffed and sat in a police car as law enforcement tried to calm the chaos. He was released a short time later, and authorities have since lauded him as a hero.
Fierro said his wife was not seriously injured, but his daughter Kassy broke her knee amid the attack. Her boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, was one of the five people killed in the shooting. Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh, were also fatally shot.
Fierro expressed regret for not being able to help the five people who were killed, but police have said he helped prevent further bloodshed.
“I tried to save people and it didn’t work out for five,” he said. “There’s five people who aren’t home right now.”
Aldrich was being held on murder and hate crime charges in connection with the shooting.
With News Wire Services
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