COLO. SUPERMARKET MASSACRE
COP AMONG AT LEAST 10 DEAD IN BOULDER:
A gunman armed with an assault rifle went on a rampage at a Boulder, Colo., supermarket Monday afternoon, killing 10 people — including a police officer who was one of the first cops to respond, authorities said.
The suspect was taken into custody and was being treated for unspecified injuries, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said at a press conference hours after the shooting at a King Soopers store.
The nightmare unfolded at about 2:30 p.m., police said. Cops swarmed the store within minutes — and 51year-old Officer Eric Talley was fatally shot, according to Herold.
Talley was “heroic,” she added, fighting back tears as she spoke to reporters near the scene.
Chilling live video posted on YouTube showed officers escorting a shirtless man with blood running down his leg out of the supermarket in handcuffs, but police officials wouldn’t say if that was the shooter.
Other than the suspect, no other survivors sustained “serious” injuries, officials said.
The names of the victims, other than Talley, were not immediately released because their families were still being notified, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.
“These were people going about their day doing their food shopping and their lives were cut abruptly and tragically short by the shooter,” Dougherty said, as he vowed to prosecute the killer.
Authorities didn’t provide a possible motive or give more details about the shooting, which occurred about two miles south of the University of Colorado-Boulder campus.
“He didn’t say s–t,” one eyewitness told the Denver Post about the gunman. “He just came in and started shooting.”
The killer used an AR-15-style semiautomatic assault rifle, according to CNN, citing a senior law-enforcement official.
In the footage posted on YouTube, at least two people can be seen lying motionless on the ground outside the store, and one just inside its doors.
As the cameraman walks inside, more shots ring out and the live streamer makes a run for it just as law enforcement appears to be descending on the scene.
Hundreds of officers from the area are seen swarming the parking lot, surrounding the store and standing on the roof.
A SWAT is seen suiting up outside the store, as officers stand behind police vehicles for cover.
At one point, authorities are e heard saying over a loudspeaker that the building is surrounded and, “You need to surrender.”
Police are then seen in an armored car approaching the store, which was badly damaged and had many of its front windows blown out.
One shopper, Sarah Moonshadow, told ABC affiliate Denver7 that she was standing in the checkout line when she heard the gunshots and told her 21-year-old son to start running.
“I said, ‘Just run, don’t look! Just run!” Moonshadow recalled, adding that the gunman “was definitely coming in our direction.”
The mom and son made it out safely, before encountering a man lying in the parking lot.
“I started running toward him to try to help him,” Moonshadow said, “and my son grabbed me by my coat and said, ‘No, we can’t help him. We gotta go.’ ”
Another man told CBS News that his son-in-law and granddaughters hid inside a closet in the store for an hour.
“They walked into the pharmacy for him to get a COVID-19 shot and the shooter came in, shot the woman in front of them,” he said. “They hid, ran upstairs . . . They were hiding in a coat closet for the last hour.”
He said police later came in “through the roof ” and got them to safety.