Richard and Jessica Fierro have been celebrated for years for their award-winning beers and creating Colorado’s first Latin-owned brewery to be led by a female head brewer, Atrevida Beer Co.
On Nov. 20, they and some of their employees went out to Club Q in Colorado Springs for a “fun night out” that ended in tragedy.
The Fierros, along with their daughter Kassy, who also works at their brewery, and her 22-year-old boyfriend Raymond Green Vance, were at the gay nightclub celebrating a friend’s birthday when a gunman entered. He killed five people, including Vance, whom the family had known since their daughter was in high school. Dozens of others were injured, including those in Fierros’ group.
“It was absolute havoc,” Jessica Fierro wrote on Atrevida’s Instagram page. “It was terrifying. Kassy broke her knee as she was running for cover. Our best friends were both shot multiple times. I bruised the right side of my body and Rich injured both his hands, knees and ankle as he apprehended the shooter. He was covered in blood.”
Richard Fierro has been hailed a hero amid the horror, as he and another man helped subdue the shooter. A U.S. Army veteran who served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Richard Fierro said he stepped in after his military reflexes kicked in.
“I wasn’t thinking. I just ran over there,” he said. “(I thought), ‘I’ve got to kill this guy. He’s going to kill my kid. He’s going to kill my wife.’ … It’s just the reflex: ‘Go. Go to the fight. Stop the action. Stop the activity. Don’t let no one get hurt.'”
Atrevida Beer Co./Facebook
Along with helping him save the lives of the dozens of other people who were at the venue during the incident, his military training is also what contributed to the development of he and his wife’s business. The couple had discovered their passion for brewing while Rich was stationed in Germany, the couple says on the beer company’s website.
Their brewery, whose name means “bold, daring, audacious woman,” according to their website, was built by Jessica, who embodies exactly that. Along with being military spouse during her husband’s 15 years in the U.S. Army and being a…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Home – CBSNews.com…