The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Those who lost their lives
Ten people were killed Monday when a gunman opened fire at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, authorities said. They included a Boulder police officer, a young grocery store worker and a retiree filling orders for Instacart. Here is what we know so far
Profiles of the people who were killed in Monday’s grocery shooting in Boulder, Colo.,
Tralona Bartkowiak, 49 A shop manager, newly engaged
Tralona Lynn “Lonna” Bartkowiak managed a shop in Boulder that sold yoga and festival clothing, said her brother, Michael Bartkowiak of Roseburg, Oregon.
He described his older sister, the eldest of four close-knit, California-born siblings, as “an amazing person, just a beam of light.” She had moved to Boulder to run the store, Umba, which had been launched by their sister.
“She rented a house outside Boulder,” he said, “and lived there with her little Chihuahua, Opal. She had just gotten engaged. She was, you know, organic — stir fries, salads — she was always trying to be healthier.”
Michael Bartkowiak had last seen his sister about a month ago, he said, when the family gathered in southern Oregon. “We just hung out and talked and chilled. That was the last time I saw her.”
His voice caught. “She was just great,” he said. “No, she is great. Still is.”
Suzanne Fountain, 59 A dedicated gardener
Neighbors knew Suzanne Fountain as a prolific gardener who passed a steady stream of tomatoes, lettuce and basil over the tall wooden fence surrounding her yard. “She would always share her abundance with us,” said Laura Rose Boyle Gaydos, who used to live next door.
She could often be found sitting outside in the early evening, watching the sun set over the mountains.
Fountain had lived in her house for more than 20 years, raising her son Nathaniel there.
She was an actress in the early 1990s. More recently, she found a creative outlet in etown, a nationally syndicated public radio show produced in Boulder that combines music and conversation.
She had worked as financial adviser at a Boulder health center and then in 2018 embarked on a new career, starting a business to advise people newly turned 65 about how to apply for Medicare.
Teri Leiker, 51 A longtime grocery employee
Teri Leiker had worked for about 30 years at King Soopers, according to her friend Alexis Knutson, 22.
Knutson met Leiker through a program called Best Buddies that connects students at the University of Colorado Boulder and members of the community with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Knutson remembered attending university sporting events together, and how Leiker loved to cheer on the teams.
Despite their age difference, Knutson said, they bonded. “I always had a rule she couldn’t call before 9 a.m. because I like my sleep,” she said. “She would always call me at 6 a.m.”
Eve Rose, 55, has shopped at King Soopers for years and said Leiker, a grocery bagger, was a warm and familiar presence.
“As soon as I saw her I would stop being irritable and impatient,” Rose said, trying to hold back tears. “Something about her air, her smile, just soothed me.”
Kevin Mahoney, 61 His daughter’s hero
Kevin Mahoney was formerly the chief operating officer for Stonebridge Cos., a hotel development and hospitality management company, before he left in 2014, according to Andy Boian, a spokesman for the group.
He was also about to become a grandfather, according to his daughter, Erika Mahoney, the news director for KAZU public radio in the Monterey, California, area.
“I am heartbroken to announce that my Dad, my hero, Kevin Mahoney, was killed in the King Soopers shooting,” she said on Twitter. “My dad represents all things Love. I’m so thankful he could walk me down the aisle last summer.
“I am now pregnant. I know he wants me to be strong for his granddaughter. I love you forever Dad. You are always with me.”
Lynn Murray, 62 Former magazine photo director
Lynn Murray a former photo director and mother of two, was at the grocery store Monday filling an Instacart order, which she had enjoyed doing to help people since her retirement.
“She was an amazing woman, probably the kindest person I’ve ever known,” her husband, John Mackenzie, said.
Murray was a former photo director for several magazines in New York, her husband said. The couple moved from New York in 2002, first to Stuart, Florida, then to Colorado, to raise their children.
Murray was artistic, always drawing, doodling and painting, and designed Halloween costumes for her children, said Olivia Mackenzie, one of her two daughters.
“The most undeserving person to have to be shot down I can think of has to be my mother,” she said.
Rikki Olds, 25 She ‘brought life to the family’
Rikki Olds loved the outdoors. She was a front-end manager at King Soopers, where she had worked for about seven or eight years, her uncle, Robert Olds, said.
She was an energetic, bubbly and happy-go-lucky young woman who “brought life to the family,” her uncle said. And she had persevered, despite hardship. She was the oldest of three siblings and was raised by her grandparents in Lafayette, Colorado, he said.
Robert Olds described his niece as a strong and independent woman who enjoyed hiking and camping. She liked spending time with friends and family and often accompanied him and her cousins to their baseball games.
Neven Stanisic, 23 The son of refugees
Neven Stanisic had been fixing coffee machines at the Starbucks inside the supermarket and was in the parking lot, just leaving, when he was gunned down, said the family’s priest, the Rev. Radovan Petrovic.
The son of Serbian refugees who had fled Central Bosnia during the violence of the 1990s, Stanisic was born in the United States. His Facebook page is filled with anime drawings, and his profile picture shows him in a blue cap and gown, posing with friends from his Lakewood, Colorado, high school.
He was the shining hope, Petrovic said, “of a family who, like many refugees, had come with basically nothing but their lives, to start a new life here.”
“And now, the biggest question for the family, besides all the sorrow they are enduring, is how this could have happened here,” he said. “They fled war to save their lives, and to be struck by such a terrible tragedy — the loss is beyond comprehension.”
Denny Stong, 20 An avid hunter, future pilot
Denny Stong had worked at King Soopers for several years. A high school friend described him as one of the kindest people she had ever met.
He was an avid dirt biker and dreamed of becoming a pilot, according to those who knew him. He worked extra shifts at King Soopers to save money for plane fuel while he worked to get his pilot’s license, said Laura Spicer, whose son was Stong’s best friend.
“Denny was a confident and really generous person who always met you with a smile and had really high aspirations for his life,” said Spicer, 55.
Molly Proch, a friend from Fairview High School in Boulder, said Stong enjoyed hunting and was a strong supporter of the Second Amendment but also supported strengthening certain gun regulations. “He was so passionate about expressing how he thought the government should handle weapons” to avoid mass shootings, she said. “And then this is how he’s not here anymore.”
Stong had recently posted on his Facebook page, encouraging friends to donate to the National Foundation for Gun Rights Inc. for his birthday.
Eric Talley, 51 A veteran police officer
An 11-year veteran of the Boulder Police Department, Eric Talley was described as “heroic” by Chief Maris Herold at the scene of the shooting Monday night.
“He was the first on the scene, and he was fatally shot,” Herold said in a news conference.
“The world lost a great soul,” said Talley’s father, Homer Talley. “He was a devoted father — seven kids. The youngest was 7 and the oldest was 20, and his family was the joy of his life.”
Eric Talley joined the police force as a second career when he was 40, quitting a job in cloud communications.
“He wanted to serve people,” his father said. “All kids want to be a policeman, and in many ways he was a big kid.”
Jody Waters, 65 Longtime shop owner
Jody Waters brought Beanie Babies to Boulder.
Waters used to co-own a boutique called Applause, then part of Boulder’s downtown Pearl Street Mall pedestrian district, where the plush animals were first sold in Boulder in the 1990s.
Jenn Haney said friends gathered Tuesday at her clothing store, Island Farm, to remember Waters, who worked at the store for six years until recently taking time off to care for her new grandson.
“She just brought such a bright, sparkly energy, and the world’s just dimmer with her gone,” Haney said. “She loved retail, and she loved the customers. She made people really feel like they mattered.”
Lily Rood met Waters when Rood started working at Island Farm two years ago. Rood said Waters helped her get through a tough breakup.
“She told me to move into her neighborhood so she could look over me and be a mother figure to me,” Rood said. The two lived close to each other in a neighborhood across from King Soopers.