A decorated army veteran who tackled the shooter who killed five in a Colorado Springs gay club said he wanted to protect the close knit community inside the room.

Richard Fierro, 45, was at Club Q celebrating a birthday with his wife, their daughter and her friends when he found himself one of two people who subdued the attacker armed with an AR-15 style rifle and wearing a flak vest.

“I just know I got into mode, and I needed to save my family — and my family was at that time everybody in that room,” he said in a news conference outside his home on Monday.

“That's what I was trained to do. I saw him and I went and got him...  I tried to save people and it didn’t work out for five. There’s five people who aren’t home right now."

“I didn’t ask for this,” he said, adding he was there to watch his daughter’s junior prom date perform. “I’m not a hero, I’m just some dude,” he said.

Fierro served in the military for 15 years, doing tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, before leaving as a major.