The Atrevida Beer Co. in Colorado Springs, Colo., is attracting new customers after its co-owner subdued the suspected shooter at a local LGBTQ club where five people were shot dead and 18 others injured. (Facebook)
A family-run brewery in Colorado is winning new fans and customers after one of its owners, an Army combat veteran, subdued a gunman who shot and killed five people at a bar last week.
Atrevida Beer Co. in Colorado Springs sells merchandise and beer, including at its online store. Figures such as Meena Harris, the founder of media company Phenomenal and niece of Vice President Harris, and local politicians have urged Americans to buy from the brewery owned by Richard Fierro and his wife, Jessica.
Last week, Fierro was at Club Q, a local LGBTQ bar, with his wife and daughter when a gunman started firing a weapon. Fierro, a former artillery officer, subdued the shooter with the help of Thomas James, a sailor who was also at the bar. Fierro and James both suffered injuries during the struggle.
Two of Fierro's friends were shot, both multiple times, and his daughter sustained a knee injury as she sought to take cover. Her boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, was among those killed.
Fierro served four combat tours during his 15 year-service: three times in Iraq and once in Afghanistan, earning a combat action badge and two Bronze Star Medals. He retired as a major.
Fierro has since received national praise, including from President Biden, who spoke to him and his wife, the White House said Tuesday.
His family brewery, which was founded by his wife, Jessica, is also receiving attention. A baseball writer urged her Twitter followers to crash the website by buying all their goods. A law professor in Michigan posted photos of the T-shirts she had ordered from the brewery. José Andrés, the renowned Spanish chef, told his followers to support the Fierro family's beer. A call to Atrevida on Tuesday evening received no answer.
On its website, the brewery celebrates its focus on diversity - motto: "Diversity, it's on tap!" - as well as the family's immigrant roots and Fierro's military service. The brewery's name, Atrevida, is Spanish for a bold, daring and audacious woman, in reference to Jessica, who the site says is Colorado's first Latina brewery owner and head brewer in Colorado.
In a statement posted on social media this week, Jessica Fierro said she and her family were still processing their experience and the loss of Vance, who she said had been part of their lives since their daughter was in high school. "We are going through a lot of emotions as a family and as a brewery," she wrote. "The loss of lives and the injured are in our hearts. We are devastated and torn. We love our #lgbtq community and stand with them."
