• March 4, 2025

JAI

Journalist Association of India

 Boulder shooting: Ten victims and suspect identified by police

Police chief reads the names of 10 victims of the Colorado mass shooting

Authorities in Boulder, Colorado, have identified the 10 victims killed in a mass shooting inside a grocery store on Monday, as well as the alleged gunman.

The attack at the King Soopers store ended when police took the lone suspect into custody after exchanging fire.

Police have not confirmed a motive. The suspect faces 10 counts of murder.

Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said the victims were between 20- and 65-years-old at a news conference on Tuesday.

Among the dead was 51-year-old Eric Talley, who was the first police officer to respond to the shooting.

The suspect has been named as 21-year-old Ahmad Alissa.

The grocery store is located in a busy shopping plaza in Boulder, a north-central Colorado city about 30 miles (50km) away from the state capital of Denver.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis said the attack happened “at a grocery store that could be any of our neighbourhood grocery stores”.

What do we know about the shooting?

The incident began at about 14:30 local time (20:30 GMT) on Monday when the suspect entered the supermarket and began firing.

Shoppers and employees of the store said they had to dive for cover or run to safety as the shooting unfolded.

Some of the stand-off was captured on camera by a passer-by, showing victims near the grocery store.

Healthcare workers walk out of a King Sooper's Grocery store after a gunman opened fire on 22 March 2021 in Boulder, ColoradoIMAGE COPYRIGHT GETTY IMAGES
image caption Customers and employees fled the store when the shooting began
Police officers surround King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive in Boulder after reports of shots fired inside on 22 March 2021.IMAGE COPYRIGHT GETTY IMAGES
image caption Dozens of FBI and SWAT officers were deployed to the scene

“I don’t know what’s going on… I heard gunshots, someone’s down,” the cameraman shouts. “There’s an active shooter, get away”.

Gunshots can be heard as he runs away from the shop.

The video continues, with police arriving on the scene and surrounding the market.

The Boulder police department later warned people to avoid the area and told them not to “broadcast on social media any tactical information you might see”.

“We were at the checkout, and shots just started going off,” said Sarah Moonshadow, a customer caught up in the shooting with her son Nicholas.

Sarah Moonshadow is comforted by David and Maggie Prowell after Moonshadow was inside King Soopers grocery store during a shooting in Boulder, Colorado, on 22 March 2021.IMAGE COPYRIGHT REUTERS
image caption Sarah Moonshadow, who was inside the store when shooting began, being comforted by two others outside the store

She told Reuters she had tried to help one of the victims lying on the pavement outside the store, but her son pulled her away saying “we have to go”.

“I couldn’t help anybody,” she said.

Ryan Borowski, who was also inside the store, told CNN he could not believe what had happened in his town: “This feels like the safest spot in America, and I just nearly got killed for getting a soda and a bag of chips.”

Eyewitnesses said the suspect was armed with a rifle. A police source told CNN it was an AR-15 style rifle, a semi-automatic gun that has been used in several mass shootings across the US.

Aerial footage later showed a handcuffed, shirtless man with an apparent injury to his leg being put onto a stretcher for treatment. Authorities did not say whether he was the suspect or not.

Speaking at a press conference, Boulder police chief Maris Herold confirmed that a suspect was in custody and was receiving hospital treatment. “I want to reassure the community that they are safe,” she said.

Ms Herold named the officer killed as Eric Talley, a father of seven who had been with the Boulder Police Department since 2010.

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“The heroic action of this officer when he responded to the scene… phone calls of shots fired in the area and a phone call about a possible person with a patrol rifle,” she said.

Ms Herold did not provide further details about the shooting, but said that the investigation was “very complex” and would take “no less than five days to complete”.

The names of the other victims will not be released until relatives have been informed.

Map shows site of shooting
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What’s been the reaction?

“Today we saw the face of evil. I am grieving with my community and all Coloradans,” tweeted Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

The supermarket shooting was the seventh mass killing so far this year following a lull in mass killings during the pandemic last year, according to a database compiled by the Associated Press (AP), USA Today and Northeastern University. The database defines mass killings as four or more dead.

It has already led to renewed calls for tighter gun controls in the US, a starkly divisive issue that has seen little in the way of change over the years despite hundreds of mass shootings.

Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a gun control advocate who was seriously injured in a mass shooting in 2011, said: “It’s been 10 years and countless communities have faced something similar… this is not normal.”

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter
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Responding to the news, US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Twitter: “This Senate must and will move forward on legislation to help stop the epidemic of gun violence.”

President Joe Biden, who has been briefed about the latest attack, said last month he would be recommending tougher legislation to ensure background checks on anyone wishing to purchase a firearm.

Freshman Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, a staunch defender of gun rights, tweeted that she was “praying for the police, first responders, and those affected by this tragedy”.

The right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment to the US constitution and is staunchly defended by many conservatives, including ex-president Donald Trump.

The state of Colorado has seen a number of mass shootings over the last few decades, including the 1999 Columbine High School attack that left 12 students and a teacher dead and the 2012 attack at a cinema in Aurora that killed 12 people.

H K Sethi JFI

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