Police: 10 people killed in Colorado supermarket shooting

A police officer and nine other men and women between the ages of 20 and 65 were killed in Monday’s mass shooting at a Colorado supermarket, authorities said Tuesday, adding that a suspect, a 21-year-old man, was in custody.
The shooting Monday at the crowded King Soopers supermarket in Boulder sent terrified shoppers and workers scrambling for safety and stunned a state and a nation that has grieved several mass killings.

Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said police engaged in a shootout with the suspect inside the supermarket, and Officer Eric Talley was killed.

The suspect was undergoing treatment at a hospital and was expected to be booked into the county jail later Tuesday, Boulder County Dist. Atty. Michael Dougherty said. Dougherty identified the man as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa from Arvada, Colo., and said he had lived most of his life in the U.S.

Investigators don’t know yet why the suspect opened fire inside the grocery store, Dougherty said. He said the investigation is in the early stages.

A law enforcement official briefed on the shooting told the Associated Press that the gunman used an AR-15 rifle, a lightweight semiautomatic rifle. Officials are trying to trace the gun. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

“This is a tragedy and a nightmare for Boulder County,” Dougherty said Monday shortly after the attack. “These were people going about their day, doing their shopping. I promise the victims and the people of the state of Colorado that we will secure justice.”

The attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., following the March 16 shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, according to a database compiled by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

It follows a lull in mass killings during the pandemic in 2020, which had the fewest such attacks in more than a decade, according to the database, which defines mass killings as those that leave four or more dead, not including the shooter.

Talley, 51, had been with the Boulder Police Department since 2010, Herold said. Talley went to the store after receiving a call about shots fired and a person carrying a rifle, she said.

“He was by all accounts one of the outstanding officers of the Boulder Police Department, and his life was cut too short,” Dougherty said.

Identities of the other nine victims were not disclosed Monday night as police were still notifying their family members.

Matthew Kirsch, the acting U.S. attorney for Colorado, pledged that “the full weight of federal law enforcement” will support the investigation. He said investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the crime scene, along with FBI agents.

Officers had escorted a shirtless man with blood running down his leg out of the store in handcuffs, but authorities would not say if he was the suspect. They did say the suspect was receiving medical care and was the only person injured who did not die.

Officials have not said whether the suspect is the person who was taken from the shooting scene to Foothills Hospital in Boulder. The hospital will not release information on the patient, said Rich Sheehan, spokesman for Boulder Community Health, which operates the hospital.

Boulder police had told people to shelter in place amid a report of an “armed, dangerous individual” about three miles away from the grocery store but said at the news conference later that it wasn’t related to the shooting.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that President Biden had been briefed on the shooting.

In a statement, the King Soopers chain offered “thoughts, prayers and support to our associates, customers and the first responders who so bravely responded to this tragic situation. We will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement and our store will remain closed during the police investigation.”

Kevin Daly, owner of Under the Sun Eatery and Pizzeria, about a block from the supermarket, said he was in his restaurant when he saw police cars arriving and shoppers running from the grocery store. He said he took in several people to keep them warm, and others boarded a bus provided by Boulder police and were taken from the scene.