Boulder Colorado shooting: 10 dead in mass grocery store shootout – and peace in another community shattered

Officials did not disclose the identities of any of the other victims, saying they had to inform their family members first.

As police investigated the chain of events, witnesses shared their experiences of terror and panic inside the store.

Steven McHugh said his son-in-law and two granddaughters were there when a gunman attacked.

“The intensity, the horror will last the rest of their lives,” he said.

Ryan Borowski told CNN he was shopping at the store when he heard the first shots, and by the third everyone was running. He said he couldn’t believe it had happened in his town.

“Boulder looks like a bubble and the bubble has burst,” Borowski said. “It seems like the safest place in America, and I almost got killed for buying a soda and a bag of crisps.”

He added: “It doesn’t feel like there’s a safe place anymore.”

What the authorities say happened

Boulder Police tweeted at around 2:49 p.m. (4:49 p.m. ET) that there was an “active shooter at King Soopers on Table Mesa. AVOID THE ZONE.”

In the scanner traffic, officers radioed that they were participating in a shootout. They continued to report that they had been shot several times until at least 3:21 p.m. local time.

Talley was among the first officers to take to the chaotic scene outside of King Soopers, officials said.

“He was obviously one of the outstanding officers in the Boulder Police Department, and his life was too short,” said Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

Ambulances and several law enforcement agencies arrived at the store, which is part of a large mall with a two-story mall next to it.

“He’s armed with a rifle, our officers hit back and hit back – we don’t know where he is in the store,” one officer said, according to an audio transcript.

A senior law enforcement source told CNN that the weapon used in the shooting was an AR-15 type rifle.

At one point, police were also seen moving around on the roof. It was not clear why the roofing was moving, but a witness who spoke to CNN affiliate KCNC said relatives in the store were evacuated through the roof.

“They hid, ran upstairs, hid in a locker room for the last hour,” the man said. “Half a dozen cops came in through the roof and grabbed them and then said, you know, ‘Keep quiet.'”

As events unfolded, the KMGH helicopter recorded a shirtless man being abducted from the supermarket. The man had what appeared to be blood on his arm and right leg and his hands appeared to be cuffed behind him as two officers escorted him. The man was taken to an ambulance.

It was not clear if the man was involved in the active shooting reported inside the store.

At one point, police officials tweeted that they wanted people at another location, about three miles away, to take cover due to an “individual report. armed and dangerous ”. But the second site turned out to be unrelated to the supermarket shooting, officials said.

Calls to action against gun violence

In the wake of the three Atlanta spa shootings, the latest attack has fueled calls to action and expressions of fear.

The Colorado tragedy is particularly personal, Giffords said, considering how the shooting she survived at a Tucson grocery store devastated her community.

So far this year, there have been at least six mass shootings with four or more people killed in the United States.

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet also called for a national conversation on gun violence and non-partisan action.

“It is high time that Congress took meaningful action to keep lethal weapons out of the wrong hands,” he said.

King Sooper is owned by the Kroger company, which said the store will remain closed during the police investigation.