Colo. police seeking motive in deadly party shooting

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A shooting at a birthday party inside a trailer park home in Colorado Springs that killed six people before the gunman took his own life stunned a state weary of gun violence just weeks after another Colorado mass shooting killed 10 people.

Police on Monday were investigating what led the gunman, who they said was the boyfriend of one of the victims, to walk into the crowded party early Sunday and open fire.

Six adults were killed at the home on the east side of Colorado’s second-largest city, and a seventh died at a hospital, authorities said. The shooter was the boyfriend of a female victim at the party attended by friends, family and children, police said.

Authorities didn’t release the names of the victims, gunman or disclose a possible motive.

Nor did they release any further details on what weapon or weapons were used.

Officials were still in the process of identifying the victims, Sandy Wilson of the El Paso County Coroner’s Office said Monday.

The attack follows a series of mass shootings across the U.S. this year, including one on March 22 at a crowded supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, that killed 10 people, including a police officer. The gunman in that attack faces multiple charges including first-degree murder. He has yet to enter a plea pending a mental health evaluation requested by his public defenders.

Before the Colorado Springs shooting, a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University showed there had been at least 11 mass shootings (defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter) since Jan. 1, compared to just two public mass shootings in 2020.