San Diego Army Veteran Tackled Club Q Gunman: 'It's The Reflex'

SAN DIEGO, CA — An army veteran from San Diego is one of two people who saved lives by subduing a 22-year-old man who authorities say went on a deadly shooting rampage Saturday night at Club Q, a prominent Colorado Springs gathering place for the LGBTQ+ community.

Rich Fierro, who says he's not a hero but "just some dude from San Diego,” explained to reporters while standing outside his home Monday that when shots rang out, his military instincts kicked in.

“It’s the reflex. Go! Go to the fire. Stop the action. Stop the activity," he said. "Don't let no one get hurt. I tried to bring everybody back."

Fierro was at the club with his daughter Kassy, her boyfriend, and several other friends to see a drag show and celebrate a birthday when bullets began to spray and Kassy’s boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, was fatally shot.

Fierro could smell the cordite from the ammunition, saw the flashes and dove, pushing his friend down before falling backward.

Looking up from the floor, Fierro saw the shooter's body armor and the crowd that had fled to the club's patio. Moving toward the attacker, Fierro grasped the body armor, yanked the shooter down while yelling at another patron, Thomas James, to move the rifle out of reach.

As the shooter was pinned under a barrage of punches from Fierro and kicks to the head from James, he tried to reach for his pistol. Fierro grabbed it and used it as a bludgeon.

“I tried to finish him," he said.

When a performer, who was there for the drag show ran by, Fierro told them to kick the gunman. The performer stuffed a high-heeled shoe in the attacker's face, Fierro said.

Fierro and James, about whom little was known as of Monday evening, pinned the shooter down until officers arrived minutes later. Fierro was briefly handcuffed and sat in a police car as law enforcement tried to calm the chaos.

"It was absolute havoc. It was terrifying," Fierro's wife, Jess, wrote on the Facebook page of their brewery, Atrevida Beer Co. "Kassy broke her knee as she was running for cover. Our best friends were both shot multiple times. I bruised the right side of my body and Rich injured both his hands, knees and ankle as he apprehended the shooter. He was covered in blood."

The suspect, who was said to be carrying multiple guns and additional ammunition magazines, faces murder and hate crime charges.

Fierro served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He's dealt with violence. That’s what he signed up for.

"Nobody in that club asked to do this,” he said. But everyone “is going to have to live with it now.”

“I love them,” Fierro said of the city's LGBTQ+ community. “I have nothing but love.”

“I have never encountered a person who had engaged in such heroic actions who was so humble about it," Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said in a news conference Monday. "He simply said to me, ‘I was trying to protect my family.’”

Five are dead and at least 18 injured after the incident, Colorado Springs police said.

Officers arrived at exactly midnight and the accused gunman, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, was taken into custody minutes later, according to police.

“Colorado Springs is once again in mourning after the tragic shooting at Club Q late last night," Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said Tuesday. "Our hearts go out to the victims and their families who are bearing the weight of this horrific tragedy."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.