Boulder: A shooting at a supermarket in Colorado on Monday killed 10 people, including a police officer who was the first reaction to the scene, authorities said.
Police arrested a suspect but did not arrest his name or details about the shooting at a news conference where Boulder police chief Maris Herold fought back tears.
Investigators have just begun sorting out evidence and witness interviews and did not have details about the motive for the shooting at the King Soopers store in Boulder, which is about 40 miles northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado. , said Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.
“It’s a tragedy and a nightmare for Boulder County,” Dougherty said. ‘These were people who were going to do their day and go shopping. I promise the victims and the people of the state of Colorado that we will ensure justice. The attack was the seventh massacre in the United States this year, following the March 16 shooting that killed eight people at three massage parlors in Atlanta, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
This follows a silence in mass killings during the pandemic in 2020, according to the database, which had the smallest number of such attacks in more than a decade, according to the database, which detects mass killings, defined as four or more dead, the shooter not included.
The murdered officer was identified as Eric Talley, 51, who has been with Boulder police since 2010, Herold said. He went to the store after a call about shots and someone carrying a gun, she said.
“He was by all accounts one of the outstanding officers of the Boulder Police Department, and his life was cut short,” Dougherty said of Talley.
The identities of the other nine victims were not disclosed on Monday night, as police had yet to inform their relatives.
Matthew Kirsch, the acting U.S. attorney for Colorado, promised that “the full weight of federal law enforcement” would support the investigation. He said investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were with FBI agents at the crime scene.
Officers escorted a shirtless man with blood running down his leg in handcuffs, but authorities refused to say whether he was the suspect. They did say the suspect was receiving medical attention and was the only injured person who did not die.
Officials did not say whether the suspect was the person who was taken from the shooting scene to Foothills Hospital in Boulder. The hospital will not release any further information about the patient, said Rich Sheehan, spokeswoman for Boulder Community Health, which operates the hospital.
Dean Schiller told The Associated Press that he had just left the supermarket when he heard gunshots and saw three people lying face down, two in the parking lot and one near the door. He said he “could not know if they were breathing.” In the video posted on YouTube, one person was shown on the floor in the store and two others outside on the ground. What sounds like two gunshots is also heard at the beginning of the video.
Law enforcement vehicles and officers gathered outside the store, including SWAT teams, and at least three helicopters landed on the roof. Some windows in front of the store were broken.
At one point, authorities said through a loudspeaker that the building was surrounded and that “you have to surrender.” Sarah Moonshadow told the Denver Post that two shots were fired just after she and her son, Nicolas Edwards, finished buying strawberries. She said she told her son to get off and then “just run.” After they got outside, she said they saw a corpse in the parking lot. Edwards said police quickly rushed to the premises and pulled up next to the body.
“I knew we could do nothing for the man,” he said. “We had to go.” James Bentz told the Post he was in the meat department when he heard what he thought was a wrong fire, when a series of pops.
“I was in a rush then,” he said.
Bentz said he jumped back from a loading dock to escape and that younger people were helping older people with it.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tweeted a statement that he “breaks heart as we watch this unspeakable event unfold in our Boulder community.” Police told people to hide in the middle of an ‘armed, dangerous individual’ about 5 kilometers from the grocery store, but later told the news conference that it was not related to the shooting.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting.
Source: Telangana Today