Army Veteran Took Away Club Q Attacker’s Handgun, Then Beat Him

A man signs a cross at a makeshift tribute with a display of bouquets of flowers on a corn
AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

Army veteran Richard Fierro has been identified as the club patron who took away the Club Q attacker’s handgun, hit the attacker with the gun, then beat the attacker with fists and feet.

Breitbart News reported Sunday that a patron in Club Q stopped Saturday night’s attack by taking away the attacker’s handgun and hitting him with it.

On November 21, 2022, 9NEWS and KUSA noted that the patron was Army veteran Fierro, who “served three tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.”

Richard Fierro, right, talks with his brother Ed Fierro about his efforts to subdue the gunman in Saturday's fatal shooting at Club Q, during a news conference Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, outside his home in in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Richard Fierro, right, talks with his brother Ed Fierro about his efforts to subdue the gunman in Saturday’s fatal shooting at Club Q, during a news conference Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, outside his home in in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Fierro indicated he went into fight mode once the attacker entered the establishment: “I just know that I got into mode and I needed to save my family, and that family was, at that time, everybody in that room. And that’s what I was trained to do. I saw him and I went and got him.”

He took away the attacker’s handgun and hit him with it. He then pinned the attacker to the floor and called on another patron to help in subduing the suspect: “And then I told the guy, move the AR. The kid in front of me, he was at his head. I said, ‘Move the AR. Get the AR away from him.’ And the kid did it. And then I started whaling on this dude. And I’m on top of him. I’m a big dude, man, and this guy was bigger. And I just kept whaling on him.”

An FBI agent walks outside of Club Q, the site of a weekend mass shooting, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

An FBI agent walks outside of Club Q, the site of a weekend mass shooting, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Fierro called on others to kick the attacker. “One of the performers walked by, or was running by, and I told her, ‘Kick this guy. Kick this guy,’ and she took her high heel and stuffed it in his face.”

NBC News spoke with Fierro’s wife, Jessica, who said, “My husband took the gunman down. My husband knocked the guns out of his hands and took the pistol and literally started hitting the guy with it.”

A patron named Thomas James aided Fierro in taking down the attacker.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkinsa weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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