Colorado: Army veteran says military training helped him take down Club Q shooter

Rich Fierro provided his account of the harrowing events at Club Q

A decorated Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who helped subdue the gunman at a LQBTQ nightclub in Colorado credits his military training and instincts in helping him disarm the attacker.

Rich Fierro had taken his family to Club Q on Saturday night to support a drag show performer, who was one of his daughter's friends, when the attack - in which five people were killed and 17 injured - unfolded.

The veteran was there with his daughter Kassy, her boyfriend and several other friends to see the drag show and celebrate a birthday in Colorado Springs.

What he initially described as one of the group’s most enjoyable nights took a tragic turn when gunfire rang out and Kassy’s boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, was fatally shot.

Police credit Mr Fierro and Thomas James with saving lives by subduing the gunman, who was armed with multiple firearms, including an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

"I'm not a hero," he said. "I'm just some dude."

He went on to describe grabbing the 22-year-old suspect by the armor he was wearing, dragging him down and using the gun to beat him.

"I just know I got into mode and I needed to save my family. And that family was - at that time - everybody in that room."

"That is what I was trained to do. I saw him and I went and got him. And when I pulled him down, I told him while I was hitting him 'I want to kill you guy'." As the shooter was pinned under a barrage of punches from Mr Fierro and kicks to the head from Mr James, he tried to reach for his pistol. Mr 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, Mr Fierro told them to kick the gunman. The performer stuffed a high-heeled shoe in the attacker's face, the veteran said. “I love them,” Fierro said of the city's LGBTQ community. “I have nothing but love.” Mr Fierro - who served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan - said he hopes people use the experience to embrace those around them, and wished those in the hospital a speedy recovery.

"I feel no joy. I am not happy. I am not excited. That guy is still alive and my family is not."

The suspect, named by police as Anderson Lee Aldrich, is being held on murder and hate crime charges.

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