BOULDER: A gunman opened fire on a police officer in a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, killing ten people in a second mass shootout in the US in a week.
“These people were going about their day, doing their shopping,” Boulder District Attorney Michael Dogarty said in a late-night press conference. He described the events of the day as “a tragedy and a nightmare”.
The dying police officer was identified as Eric Talley, an 11-year-old veteran on the Boulder force. Tally King Sopers was responding to the grocery market when he was closed. Speaking to the media on Monday night, his chief of police, Maris Harold, appeared to be shedding tears and confirmed the death.
Rest In peace Officer Eric Talley. Your service will never be forgotten #BoulderShooting pic.twitter.com/FVximvhS2E
— Boulder Police Dept. (@boulderpolice) March 23, 2021
The Boulder Police Department received a call about firing at noon. “Officer Tally reacted to the scene – he had been on the scene before – and he was badly shot.
“My heart goes out to the victims of this incident and I am grateful to the police officers who responded,” she said. “And I am very sorry about the loss of Officer Talley.”
Boulder Police Commander Kerry Yamaguchi said a suspect had been arrested.
Yamaguchi said, “There is no public danger.” The man was injured during the incident and is being treated for injuries. ”
No motive for the attack was stated. Matthew T., First Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Colorado. Kirsch said the FBI and other federal agents would assist in the case. He promised that “the full weight of federal law enforcement” would be brought into the investigation.
The shooting comes six days after eight people – six of them women of Asian descent – were killed by three spas in Atlanta and a gunman in a nearby county.
Roberto and Ilis Rivero’s son, who arrives at Fairview High School near King Soopers, feels the shooting is the norm, and he hopes the sentiment will change.
“I hope this tragedy especially laws, will help change gun laws, and we can all work together to create a better, more peaceful world for our children,” Roberto said , Then adding, “It’s a sad day Boulder.”
On March 22, 2021 in Boulder, Colorado, health care workers walked out of the King Soopers grocery store after being shot by a gunman.
On March 22, 2021 in Boulder, Colorado, health care workers walked out of the King Soopers grocery store after being shot by a gunman.
The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed about Monday’s attack and will keep it on the scene. The FBI office in Denver tweeted that it was assisting the investigation at the request of the Boulder Police.
Officers equipped with tactical gear and rifles responded Monday afternoon on reports of an active shooter at a King Soper in the southern part of Boulder, about 25 miles northwest of Denver.
2.49 pm. In local time, the Boulder Police Department warned people to stay away from the area around the supermarket.
At one point, officers heard over a loudspeaker that someone was circling the building and “you need to surrender” and should come out with hands up and unarmed.
A blood-soaked man with blood on his leg was thrown out of the store in handcuffs by two police officers, a live milk was fed. An ambulance pulled away from the store, apparently to carry the man. It was not clear whether the man was the suspect, but Yamaguchi said that no one else was there and those who were killed were injured.
A woman consoles a King Soopers pharmacy technician after a shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.
A man in Boulder was taken from the shooting scene to Boulder Hospital, said Boulder Community Health spokesman, Rich Sheehan, who operates the hospital. Sheehan said he could not provide additional details but added that “we have been informed that we will not receive any additional patients.”
At 4:18 pm, the police repeated the warning to avoid the area – “it’s still a very active scene” – and told local residents not to broadcast any tactical information you saw on social media Do “. ‘ The request for shelter was removed around 6:40 in the evening.
King Soopers is a Denver-based subsidiary of supermarket giant Kroger. It operates more than 150 stores in Colorado and Wyoming. Kröger is based in Cincinnati.
Local 7’s president Kim Cordova, who is both the largest union in Colorado and represents at least 17,000 grocery store employees in the state and Wyoming, reported in King Soopers’ activists the “best of human nature” Cited.
“After the sound of the gunfire, grocery workers helped customers in the store find safety, instruct shoppers to get out of the back of the store and assist each other,” he said in a statement. said in.
In the wake of mass shootings elsewhere, Kroger asked shopkeepers to drop their firearms at home in 2019. Grocery rival Walmart made the policy change a day after making a similar change. The previous policy was to avoid state or local gun regulations.
Kordova, whose union represents 32 workers in the shop, said no one should have to fear for their lives to go to the grocery store or to work every day.
“For the past year our members and other allies have combated an invisible enemy, the COVID-19, but today many innocent souls were killed by an evil human.”
Jessica Adams, right, and her daughter, Ruby Lopez, say she was prayed by laying flowers across the street from the scene of a mass shooting that killed 10 people at King Super in Boulder, Colo., On March 22, 2021.
Jessica Adams, right, and her daughter, Ruby Lopez, say she was prayed by laying flowers across the street from the scene of a mass shooting that killed 10 people at King Super in Boulder, Colo., On March 22, 2021.
Dean Schiller, who had just walked out of the Boulder store, told the Associated Press that he heard gunshots and saw three people lying down, two in the parking lot and one near the door. He said that he could not tell if he was breathing.
James Bentz, 57, told the Denver Post that he was in the meat section of the supermarket when he fired the pills. After listening to what he thought was a misfire, he heard several pops, and “I was in front of the stampede then.”
Colorado Government, Jared Polis called the killings “insensitive”.
Polis said in a statement, “This year we are all beset with life, disease and isolation and loss of life.” As spring boomed this weekend, and the vaccines continued to be covered in arms, lightness. Only to come back on us again today is back in the dark. “
Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver expressed remorse, saying, “Our community will soon be saddened by our loss.”
University of Colorado head basketball coach Todd Boyle said late Monday that the tragedy had weighed on his team’s 71-53 season ending.
“It puts basketball in its proper place,” Boyle said. “Win or lose tonight, I just felt an emptiness in my stomach. Another insensitive act of violence that we have experienced many times as a country.”
Colorado senior guard McKinley Wright, who played his last college game, said the shooting was on his mind all night.
“I feel bad, which is very terrible for the families affected by the events in Boulder,” he said. “Today people hold us as players to play this game and even playing this game is a privilege for me.” We have to realize life outside of basketball, and today a lot of people have lost family members. “
Shooting tragedies of national magnitude are an unfortunate reality in Colorado.
The Denver metro area alone is besieged with some of the nation’s most notorious mass shootings, including an attack at Columbine High School in 1999 that left 12 students and a teacher dead before two killers committed suicide Was killed. The Colombian massacre, which took place about 41 miles south of Boulder, was the deadliest school shooting in American history at the time.
In July 2012, a lone gunman fired during a performance of “The Dark Knight Rises” at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The attacker, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, used tear gas and several guns as he locked doors and terrorized 400 people. Twelve died and 58 others suffered gunshot wounds.
Another shooting, at a planned paternity clinic in Colorado Springs, in November 2015 left three dead and nine injured. The killer, described as delusional, was eventually found unable to stand trial and a judge ordered him confined in a mental hospital indefinitely.
And in May 2019, a student was killed and eight others were injured in an ambush on STEM School Highlands Ranch, a charter school located in Douglas County, about 68 miles south of Boulder. One suspect has pleaded guilty in the case and another is awaiting trial in May 2021.