COLORADO SPRINGS — Wyatt Kent and Kelly Loving were strangers before they were brought together that Saturday night at Club Q.
"I didn't know Kelly as well as I would have liked to, especially because she's my savior," Kent said, recalling the events that happened just over a week ago.
He was at the front of the bar with friends around midnight. He recalls seeing Derrick Rump, Raymond Green, and Daniel Aston, who was his partner.
Moments later, all three would be killed as the gunman entered the door. Kent said it was another victim, 40-year-old Kelly Loving, that ended up saving his life.
"Kelly was standing near me, and I believe she took that bullet for me. Kelly fell on top of me when I fell onto the ground," he said. "I held her hand. I said, 'Keep squeezing me, baby, keep squeezing me,' and supported her airway. I did everything I possibly could to save her."
Kent said Loving passed away while on top of him.
"I was helping her with some of her very last breaths. I turned to her, and I gave her a kiss on the cheek," he said.
Loving was one of five killed that night, along with Kent's partner, Aston. He calls him his other half that he had been "searching for forever." The two met while Aston was bartending at Club Q.
"He told me that in January, on New Years, he was just going to show up at the bar and whisk me away to Las Vegas, and we were going to get married at the white wedding chapel," he said.
Kent remembers the memories he and Aston had, with a smile on his face, while standing in the middle of Atrevida Brewing Company in Colorado Springs.
The brewery is owned by Richard Fierro, another survivor of the Club Q shooting and Army veteran who helped take down the gunman inside the club.
Kent said he came along with almost a hundred others Tuesday night to help honor the heroic actions of Fierro, who was awarded a $50,000 check from Ent Credit Union.
"I'm here because Rich Fierro saved my life," Kent said. "I can't imagine what the circumstance would be otherwise."
Fierro and Kent, once strangers, now share a bond through tragedy. The two will continue to mourn the loss of those killed, but for now, Kent said he wears Aston's jean jacket to keep his memory alive.
"I feel Daniel with me at all times. But I feel all five of them with me," he said.
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