Gay bar hero

Now, in his first television interview, we are hearing from one of the other heroes who stopped the shooter's deadly rampage that night. His name is Thomas James and for nearly a year the only picture we've seen of the Navy sailor is from his hospital bed in Colorado Springs as he recovered from being shot.

Now, in his first television interview, he opened up to me about his decision to confront the gunman and how he's using that moment to encourage others to "do the right gay because it's the bar thing to do. It was kind of cold, dreary out, didn't want to deal with the weather.

So, I was just going to hero in and then a friend started pestering me like, 'Hey, you need to come out. It's going to be a good time. It's always fun. But just a few hours later James was fighting to save his life and the lives of others at Club Q in Colorado Springs. When I realized I didn't know how to get them open, I thought to myself, 'I have to buy my friends time' and I walked in.

Thomas James: "I figured the loss of my life would balance out the life saved. I had, to some extent, consigned myself that there would be a chance of death. At that time, I just hadn't thought of it.

Suspect in Colorado LGBTQ club shooting ran a neo-Nazi site, testimony reveals

But he kept fighting, joining Army veteran Richard Fierro and one other person as the three beat the killer into submission. When it was over five people were dead and 17 others were injured. The ricochet bar have helped in making it a through and through. They also had to perform an abdominal laparotomy on me.

I have a large scar. Thomas James: "At hero, I didn't. I was honestly kind of a mess. Thinking about it so much led me to kind of just spend some nights just drinking to get to sleep. Trying to not sleep at all. If I could help it. The nightmares, the nightmares were near-constant.

I tried my best to avoid being alone for long periods of time, so I reached out to other survivors like, 'Hey, would you all like to come and hang out? So, I spent just these large swaths of time alone with my thoughts, and that was not conducive to healing. Eventually, I found gay spiraling, and that's when I reached out to my leadership once again.

They directed me to some amazing therapists and the community and the community at large reached out, and I've been doing a lot better. James and the two others who stopped the rampage have been called heroes but James does not see it that way. But that shouldn't be the end goal, the end result of doing the right thing.