Colorado Springs Pride Parade to Hail Club Q Hero

The Mexican American U.S. Army veteran that stopped the Club Q mass shooter at the LGBTQ club last November in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is going to serve as the Pikes Peak Pride Parade grand marshal Sunday.

“When they asked me to be grand marshal of this parade, I literally started crying,” Rich Fierro, who has attended the Pride month event for the past five years, told KOAA News-5 this week.

“It’s just been really cool that they were so accepting and willing to do that with me, and I was in no way going to say no, because that’s just the coolest thing.”

Fierro was at the gay Club Q on Nov, 19, 2022, with his daughter, whose boyfriend Raymond Green Vance was among the five shooting fatalities.

“Six months: It feels like yesterday for most of us,” Fierro said. “That trauma for all of us, probably feels like yesterday.

“And my daughter’s walking again, but there’s still one missing of the six of us, right? And I can only imagine being a family member who lost one of their five. Raymond was kind of part of our family.”

Fierro was hailed as a hero having helped stop the mass shooter.

“This was an attack on a whole community within our entire community, and to see that community celebrate themselves and celebrate the culture and everything that goes with it, that’s something that can help move us a little more further down the road,” Fierro told KOAA.

“And then we can celebrate because we’re survivors, right? And that’s something to celebrate on top of this community.”

Fierro said Pride celebrations are more than just about sexual orientation.

“Pride is not necessarily just about that community,” he concluded to KOAA. “It’s about everybody celebrating each other and being able to be who you want.

“For a community that’s opened up their arms and shown me love. I don’t see anybody having anything but love at either these events on Saturday, Sunday.”