COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Five people were killed and dozens more injured in the November 2022 mass shooting at Club Q, a LGBTQ+ bar in Colorado Springs. The entire Fierro family was at the club that night.
“Everybody in there was doing something that was heroic. Every single person, whether it was hiding, hiding with someone, keeping someone alive, running to get help, or bringing in help," said Rich Fierro, who was hailed as a hero for helping stop the shooter. “We went to a club that night not expecting to have anything changed. We're just going to go through Thanksgiving, do all those things. And all of a sudden, our world changed."
The Fierros' world changed in every way possible. People from all over the world wanted to show support for the family, who owns Atrevida Beer Company in Colorado Springs. Tens of thousands of merchandise orders poured into the small business, which typically only carried enough merchandise for their storefront.
“It was a blessing, right. But then it became kind of a hard thing for us to manage because we've never dealt with that quantity or that amount of stuff," Fierro said. “It's not stuff we make, so I couldn't just ramp up production. I was like, 'I have no idea where to find it.'”
Jess Fierro is the head brewer of Atrevida Beer Company, which has six employees. Three of those are the Fierro family: Rich, Jess and their daughter, Kassandra, whose boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, was killed at Club Q.
“Trauma doesn't go away the next day. It doesn't go away in the year. It doesn't go away in a couple of years. I mean, this is something that we're having to live with for the rest of our lives," Jess said. “We haven't yet had the opportunity to sit down and just, let me breathe it out.”
Jess handles the website for Atrevida Beer Company, which she shut down in spring 2023 because of the volume of orders they received. Since then, she has been working to locate a supplier who can handle the number of orders and ship them, but it proved difficult.
“There's so many different logistics that go into trying to fulfill orders at this scale. And so it's been, admittedly, a huge learning curve for me," Jess said. “When my online shop does reopen, it's going to go directly to the merchant, and that will be fulfilled there. It won't ever cross our hands, you know, other than in-store pickup merchandise."
Atrevida Beer Company will not open their website for online sales until all of the current, pending orders have shipped. They are also not selling the ordered merchandise, like t-shirts and hoodies, in the storefront. The supplier they have contracted said most orders will be shipped in September or October, and hopes some arrive even earlier.
“I'm no millionaire. I understand the value of a dollar. And I know when people put their money in, and they said, 'Hey, I want a t-shirt.' They expect a t-shirt, and that's what we're trying to do," Rich said. "But it was hard going from, 'We were in a shooting as a family, as a business, as everything around us,' and then, 'Let's just start making money again.' It was very hard for us to transition.”
The brewery has been open since 2018, and Rich said previously for web orders, he would package the merchandise and mail it from the post office. He could not comprehend how he would even start to ship the thousands of orders they received in the wake of the mass shooting.
“It's just like when you're sick, 'I'm not coming out of bed today,' you know, like, 'I'm just staying here.' And those days happen," Rich said. “We are working through it as a family, and I'm just so proud of what my wife and daughter are doing with this place. Knowing the trauma that they're still dealing with, it's just amazing.”
Meanwhile, Jess is inundated with emails about the orders, and several contain hurtful messages. She showed one to Denver7, which called the Fierros "lowlife scumbag f***ing thieves."
“Going through something as traumatic as we've gone through, as a family and as a business, to read stuff like this, it's hard for it to not hit you a certain kind of way," Jess said while looking at the email. “You're giving your absolute all to everything that you're doing and trying to push forward as much as you can. And then you get messages like this, that really just kind of pick at your psyche.”
Jess said their rating on the Better Business Bureau's (BBB) has dropped from an A to a D-.
“These are the same folks that are doing Google reviews and leaving us one star and saying, 'I only left one star because I couldn't leave zero, because I never got my shirt.' Or you know, people who think that we made this entire thing up, you know, it's a scam, and we're thieves," Jess said. “We've been threatened with people showing up at our home... I have chosen up until this point not to draw light to this... When I don't show folks what's actually happening, and they don't see it for themselves, it's a pity party. 'Jess wants a pity party, Atrevida wants a pity party,' you know, 'They want people to feel bad for them. They want people to feel sorry for them.' It's like, actually, we don't. Not at all. I've never asked for that. I've never wanted that.”
She hopes the emails end as the orders are delivered.
“If you received a purchase order, you have a number, your credit card was debited, your gear is coming," Jess said to the customers waiting on their order. “I'm thankful to folks who have maintained patience and understanding with us, and not only us and what we're going through as a family, but also as a business and brewery.”
