Raymond Green Vance was having a great time at Club Q on Saturday.
He was “smiling and dancing like a kid,” with his girlfriend at the club, said Richard Fierro, his girlfriend’s father.
“My daughter got to spend a last day with him, happy,” Fierro said Monday, fighting tears. Vance, 22, of Colorado Springs, was one of five people killed by a gunman at the club Saturday night, Colorado Springs police confirmed. At least 18 others were wounded.
Fierro was one of two club patrons who stopped the shooter by rushing him, disarming him and beating him with his own gun.
It was Vance’s first time at the club, according to a news release by his family. He doesn’t identify as LGBTQ+, but as an ally.
“Unfortunately, he never left the club,” they said in a statement through media liaison Joanna Small.
They described Vance — a son, grandson, brother, nephew and cousin — as “a kind, selfless young adult with his entire life ahead of him.”
Born in Chicago before spending “his entire life” in Colorado Springs, Vance graduated from Sand Creek High School in 2018.
His mother remembers him as “a popular, well-liked young man who never got into any trouble and had plenty of friends.”
A video game enthusiast, Vance eventually hoped to turn his passion into an online career. Recently, he secured a job at a Colorado Springs FedEx distribution center. He aimed to save money for an apartment, but lived with his mother and younger brother in the meantime.
“His absence will leave irreparable heartbreak in countless lives,” the family said. “Raymond will be missed unbearably.”
Kassy Fierro, Green’s girlfriend, wrote several Facebook posts on Monday memorializing him, noting that the two were together for five years and four months.
She described him as “the brightest light” of a man who smiled and laughed often.
She hid in a dressing room with fellow club patron Joshua Thurman when the gunfire started, her father said Monday.
“He grabbed my daughter and they went and hid,” he said. “He saved my daughter’s life.”
He said Vance was a part of their family.
“He’s a good man,” he said, “and I loved him.”
Denver Post reporter Shelly Bradbury contributed to this developing story.
Source: Orange County Register
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