Police said 10 people, including one police officer, are dead as the result of a shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday.
Authorities appeared at a press conference in the early evening, hours after the shooting, and said there is no ongoing threat. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty confirmed that a suspect was in custody and being treated at a hospital.
The officer was identified as 51-year-old Eric Talley during a second press conference later in the evening.
Boulder Police Chief Maris Harold told reporters on Monday night that Talley, a father of seven children, was the first officer on the scene. Emergency services had received a call of a “possible person with a patrol rifle,” she said.
Harold described Talley’s actions as “heroic,” and his father, Homer Talley, told CNN it “didn’t surprise me he was the first one there. He loved his family more than anything.”
“My heart goes out to the victims of this incident, and I’m grateful for the police officers that responded,” she said. “I want to reassure the community that they are safe.”
Neither the names of the rest of the victims nor the suspect were disclosed by officials. Officials also did not share any possible motive for the shooting rampage.
“We will try to do our best over the next few hours to identify the victims, and we’ll be working with the coroner’s office to do that as promptly as possible, because I know there are people out there waiting for an answer, and I am very sympathetic that,” Harold said, becoming visibly emotional.
She added that the investigation into the incident would take “no less than five days to complete.”
“This is a tragedy and a nightmare for Boulder County, and, in response, we have cooperation and assistance from local, state, and federal authorities,” Dougherty said. “This will very much be a coordinated effort, and we will stand united in support of the victims and their families to ensure that justice is done.”
In the afternoon, the Boulder Police Department said it was responding to an active shooter situation at a supermarket.
While the situation was still active, the department said it had issued an emergency notification at another location, asking people “near 17th and Grove to shelter in place while they respond to report of armed, dangerous individual. PD is investigating to determine if this is related to King Soopers shooting.”
About an hour and a half later, the department tweeted that the shelter-in-place order had been lifted. At the Monday press conference, police said the two incidents were “unrelated.”
Video circulating on social media appears to show multiple victims lying in the parking lot of the supermarket and at least one in the store itself.
A man in the video can be heard telling the person filming at the front of the store, “He went in there,” pointing to the inside of the supermarket. At least two shots could then be heard coming from inside the store.
Video from the scene shows a man with a bloody leg and no shirt and no shoes with his hands by his back being led by a police officer and another first responder and placed on a stretcher. The man’s involvement in the incident was not immediately clear.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Police in Boulder, Colorado, reported an ‘active shooter’ at a King Soopers grocery store, and aerial footage broadcast live from the scene by local media showed one person being placed in an ambulance and a man in handcuffs https://t.co/9j5m64WvXz pic.twitter.com/wREnM43QsH
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 22, 2021
One witness told the Denver Post that he was in the store when a shooting took place. He said that a “stampede” ensued when shots were heard and that he jumped off the store’s loading dock to get out. He described how younger shoppers helped older ones to get off the dock safely.
“It seemed like all of us had imagined we’d be in a situation like this at some point in our lives,” he said.
“Our hearts are broken over this senseless act of violence,” King Soopers spokeswoman Kelly McGannon told reporters on Monday. “The entire King Soopers family offers our thoughts, prayers, and support to our associates, our customers, and first responders who so bravely responded to these acts of violence.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement, “Today we saw the fact of evil,” adding, “As spring sprung this weekend, and vaccines continue to get into arms, lightness creeped back in only for the darkness to descend on us again today.”
He added: “Our community anxiously awaits more information on the victims, hoping it’s not our friends, coworkers and neighbors but knowing in our tight knit community it will be, and even if we don’t personally know them, we all mourn their senseless killing and our sense of safety in our local grocery store.”
