Army veteran who took down the Colorado nightclub shooter thanks the community for its support a week after the attack - CNN

CNN  — 

Richard Fierro, the Army seasoned who helped instrumentality down a shooter firing upon patrons astatine an LGBTQ nightclub successful Colorado, expressed his heavy appreciation for the community’s enactment arsenic his family’s brewery reopened the time aft Thanksgiving.

“It was a beautiful, beauteous day,” Fierro told CNN’s Jim Acosta Saturday. “I couldn’t convey capable people. I tried to convey everyone that walked done the door.”

Fierro has been hailed by authorities for his quick, life-saving actions wrong Club Q successful Colorado Springs connected November 19, erstwhile constabulary accidental an equipped idiosyncratic entered the gathering conscionable earlier midnight and opened fire. Five radical were killed and astatine slightest 19 were wounded successful the attack, according to police.

“I’m not a hero,” Fierro told Acosta. “Everyone other successful that country was a leader with america and everybody’s got a leader communicative to conscionable effort and survive.”

The shooter was tackled to the ground by Fierro, who had been celebrating a day astatine the nine with household and friends. Another person, identified by constabulary arsenic Thomas James, pushed a firearm retired of the shooter’s scope portion Fierro struck and subdued the shooter with the different firearm they had, a handgun.

Fierro’s daughter’s boyfriend, 22-year-old Raymond Green Vance, has been identified by authorities arsenic among those killed successful the shooting. The suspected shooter is being held successful custody without enslaved and faces 5 preliminary counts of first-degree execution and 5 counts of a bias-motivated transgression – elsewhere called a hatred transgression – causing bodily injury, according to tribunal documents.

President Joe Biden called Fierro and his wife, Jessica, Tuesday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said, explaining the president wanted to convey Fierro for his “courageous actions” and “instinct to act” successful thwarting the onslaught and redeeming lives.

Fierro told CNN Saturday helium was “humbled” by the call.

“At the extremity of the day, I privation everybody could speech to him, and conscionable to person that honor. I’m an aged soldier, truthful for maine conscionable to speech to a commander-in-chief is simply a large deal,” helium said.

Biden told reporters Thursday helium would again effort to enactment with Congress to “get escaped of battle weapons.” When asked astir the nationalist speech astir firearms, Fierro said helium has respect for specified weapons from his grooming arsenic a worker and wants to spot a antithetic mentality careless of wherever the weapon statement turns next.

“I would conscionable similar radical to halt having truthful overmuch anger. It shouldn’t beryllium thing this tense. There’s nary crushed for idiosyncratic to spell to a creation nine oregon a amusement oregon thing and person to interest astir being shot,” helium said.

For Friday’s reopening of the Atrevida Beer Company successful Colorado Springs – of which helium and his woman are owners – Fierro said helium was astir heartened by those successful attendance.

“It was much beauteous arsenic a idiosyncratic to spot the variance, the difference, the diversity, the inclusion of everyone there. Everybody successful the aforesaid country conscionable having immoderate joyousness and enjoying a beer.”