Richard Fierro was with his wife, daughter and his daughter's boyfriend, enjoying a night out at LGBTQ+ Club Q in Colorado Springs when Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, allegedly began firing on the crowd late Saturday.
A man twice honored with a Bronze Star for heroism while serving the U.S. is now being hailed a hero at home after stepping in to stop the gunman who opened fire in an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Richard Fierro, 45, served 15 years in the U.S. Army, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, before he retired with the rank of major. He and his wife, daughter and his daughter’s boyfriend were enjoying themselves in Club Q when Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, allegedly began firing on the crowd late Saturday.
“I just know I got into the mode I needed to save my family, and my family at that time was everybody in that room,” Fierro said. “I saw him and went and got him.”
Aldrich was allegedly armed with a long rifle that was an AR-style weapon and a handgun, officials said. But that did not deter Fiero from acting.
“I grabbed him by the back of his cheap-ass armor thing and I pulled him down,” Fierro said. “When I pulled him down, I told him while I was hitting him, ‘I'm going to kill you, guy.’”
Fierro praised a drag queen, who drag performer Del Lusional, who was performing on the night of the shooting and has since said on Twitter was in fact a transgender woman, for helping him fight back against the gunman.
“I told her kick this guy, and she took her high heel and stuffed it in his face,” Fierro said.
Fierro, who owns a brewery with his wife in Colorado Springs, downplayed the praise he is receiving, saying, “I'm not a hero...There are real heroes out there and I hope the people who want to be hero... Go be heroes.”
Fierro’s daughter Kassandra broke her knee escaping the bullets. Kassandra’s boyfriend Raymond Green Vance was killed. In total, five people were killed and 25 were wounded.
We are learning more about Aldrich, who authorities say will face five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury in connection to the mass shooting.
He was born Nicholas F. Brink, but when he was 15, he changed his name to Anderson Lee Aldrich. His parents separated when he was a toddler, and his mother was once arrested for suspected arson. She was found guilty of a lesser offense, criminal mischief.
His father, Aaron Brink, is a former adult film actor and mixed martial arts fighter who once appeared on TV’s “Divorce Court” with another wife. Aldrich’s grandfather is outgoing California State Representative Randy Voepel, a MAGA-supporter who has compared the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to the American Revolutionary War.
Aldrich remains hospitalized due to the extensive injuries he sustained during that takedown.
