A New York Times reporter spoke with one of the people who took down the Colorado Springs shooter before he could kill even more people. The hero’s name is Richard M. Fierro, a local brewer, and if the story is accurate (others have corroborated it), he deserves a medal. An excerpt:
COLORADO SPRINGS — Richard M. Fierro said he was at a table in Club Q with his wife, daughter and friends on Saturday, watching a drag show, when the sudden flash of gunfire ripped across the nightclub. His instincts from four combat deployments as an Army officer in Iraq and Afghanistan instantly kicked in. Fight back, he told himself…
When the shooting started, Mr. Fierro said, he hit the floor, pulling a friend down with him. As bullets sprayed, he saw the gunman move through the bar toward a door leading to a patio where dozens of bar patrons had fled. Mr. Fierro, who served in the Army for 15 years, said he raced across the room, grabbed the gunman by a handle on the back of his body armor, pulled him to the floor and jumped on top of him.
“Was he shooting at the time? Was he about to shoot? I don’t know,” ” Mr. Fierro said. “I just knew I had to take him down.”
The gunman, who Mr. Fierro estimated weighed more than 300 pounds, sprawled onto the floor, his military-style rifle landing just out of reach. Mr. Fierro started to go for the rifle, but then saw that the gunman had a pistol as well.
“I grabbed the gun out of his hand and just started hitting him in the head, over and over,” Mr. Fierro said.
As the fight continued, he said, he yelled for other club patrons to help him. A man grabbed the rifle and moved it away to safety. A drag dancer stomped on the gunman with her high heels. The whole time, Mr. Fierro said, he kept pummeling the shooter’s head while the two men screamed obscenities at each other.
When police arrived a few minutes later, the gunman was no longer struggling, Mr. Fierro said, and he feared that he had killed him. The suspect in the shooting was taken into custody and remained hospitalized on Monday afternoon.
The cops mistook Fierro for a perpetrator since he was covered in the suspect’s blood when they arrived. They tackled and cuffed Fierro and locked him in a police car for an hour while he begged them to let him go check on his family. The article says his wife and daughter are recovering from injuries at the home where reporters interviewed Fierro.
Other reports say the suspect, who is still hospitalized, hasn’t spoken with authorities yet. Hopefully that’s because his face is smashed in from the pistol-whipping. I know that’s a gross and violent thought, but fuck that motherfucker, fuck his MAGA chump grandpa and fuck every GOP politician who is whipping up hate and fear against the LGBTQ community. They should all rot in hell.
Open thread!
PS: A medal for the drag dancer who stomped on that motherfucker too.