Officers Fired for Putting Airsoft Guns on Dead Suspects

A 21-year-one-time Colorado human being faced murder charges Tuesday in the shooting rampage at a Boulder supermarket that left 10 people dead and fueled chaos as panicked shoppers fled to rubber amidst the hail of bullets.

Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold released the names of the victims and said they ranged in age from 20 to 65. Among them was officer Eric Talley, 51, a father of seven who responded to the 911 call.

Monday'south carnage was the nation's second mass shooting in a week, coming six days after an attack at 3 Georgia massage spas that left viii people expressionless. The Boulder attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.South., co-ordinate to a database compiled past The Associated Press, USA TODAY and Northeastern University.

The Boulder shooting suspect, identified as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, was shot in the leg, Herold said. He was booked into the county jail on murder charges Tuesday after being treated at a infirmary. Alissa is due to make his offset court advent Thursday.

"Today our city is grieving the senseless loss of 10 lives in our community," Mayor Sam Weaver said. "A man with a gun monstrously struck them down."

Investigators have not established a motive, but they believe Alissa was the only shooter, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.

Details we know so far:

The victims were identified equally Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Eric Talley, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65.
A law enforcement official briefed on the shooting told The Associated Press that the gunman used an AR-xv rifle, a lightweight semi-automatic rifle. Officials were trying to trace the weapon. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to AP on status of anonymity.
The shooting began around 2:30 p.g. local time at a Rex Soopers supermarket in Bedrock, near 25 miles northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado.

Family says suspect was paranoid, hating, possibly mentally ill

The 21-year-former doubtable in Monday'southward mortiferous shooting in Boulder, Colorado, was described by family members as paranoid and antisocial, and his brother said he believes younger sibling Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa is mentally sick.

Alissa, a resident of the Denver suburb of Arvada, went to a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder — about 20 miles away — with 2 weapons, including an AR-15-mode rifle he purchased half dozen days before, according to an abort affirmation. He shot and killed ten people before surrendering to police with a leg wound, later stripping downwards to his shorts.

The affidavit describes Alissa equally standing v feet, 6 inches alpine, and weighing 200 pounds, with a beer belly and a balding caput.

Ali Alissa, 34, told CNN his brother was bullied in high school for existence Muslim and became antisocial and increasingly paranoid around 2014. As a loftier school senior in 2018, Ahmad Alissa was plant guilty of assaulting a fellow student in form later knocking him to the flooring and punching him in the caput several times, according to a police affidavit that said Alissa complained the student had called him "racial names.''

Ali Alissa said he believes his blood brother has a mental illness.

"He always suspected someone was behind him, someone was chasing him,'' Ali Alissa said. "He would say, 'Someone is chasing me, someone is investigating me,' and we're like, 'Come on, human, there's nothing.' He was just endmost into himself.''

President Biden urges action on gun-control measures

In his remarks Tuesday most the Bedrock rampage, President Joe Biden jumped directly into the thorny issue of gun control, calling on Congress to pass legislation to ban assault weapons and high-chapters magazines and to close loopholes in background checks. He urged the Senate to approve two bills to bolster federal gun laws that the Business firm passed earlier this calendar month.

"These are bills that received votes with both Republicans and Democrats in the House. This is not and should not be a partisan outcome,'' Biden said. "This is an American issue that will save lives, American lives. And we have to human action. We should likewise ban set on weapons in the process."

Addressing the grieving families of victims of gun violence, not only from the 2 mass shootings within a week in Colorado and Georgia merely besides previous incidents across the U.Due south., Biden said: "We take to human action so in that location's not more of y'all, there's fewer of yous as time goes on.''

Alive and virtual vigils planned

A handful of vigils have been scheduled to commemorate the victims of Monday's shooting rampage at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, which claimed 10 lives.

Among the alive remembrances, a candlelight acuity originally scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. Mount time at the Boulder County Courthouse was moved to Wednesday at the aforementioned time and location. Some other vigil is set up for Thursday at 6:xxx p.m. MT at Fairview High School in Boulder.

There's besides a virtual vigil at six p.m. MT Tuesday, open to anyone and hosted by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder.

A day after mayhem, quiet

At the King Soopers on Tuesday, yellow crime-scene record ringed a parking lot filled with Subarus, Jeeps and other cars abased by their owners. Ane car'due south trunk remained open, equally if deserted while its owner was loading groceries when the shooting began. Law officers from neighboring cities were helping secure the expanse, and prove markers dotted the parking lot, along with two black tents erected where bodies once lay. A pocket-sized memorial of flowers and signs was growing outside the hastily erected contend keeping the public away. Broken glass lay on the pavement in several areas, from the store'southward windows, but also from the front windows of a Ford Transit delivery van.

– Trevor Hughes

How to assist the victims' families

Ii organizations have already stepped up to lend a hand to those nigh impacted by Monday's massacre at a Bedrock, Colorado, supermarket. More than groups are likely to offer aid.

The Colorado Healing Fund, a nonprofit that provides a secure way to donate to the victims of mass casualty crimes in the state, is collecting funds online at coloradohealingfund.org.

In addition, The Conservancy Army volition offer meals to first responders and families of victims and survivors of the shooting at Bedrock's Family Assistance Heart. Donations to The Salvation Army can be made at westernusa.salvationarmy.org.

Union lauds 'brave Colorado grocery workers'

The United Nutrient and Commercial Workers International Union represents the King Soopers workers. UFCW International President Marc Perrone urged Governor Jared Polis and Colorado leaders to piece of work with law enforcement on the investigation. Perrone issued a statement lauding the "brave Colorado grocery workers caught in the crossfire of this tragic shooting."

Kim Cordova, the president of a union that represents 32 workers at the store's meat department, said there was mass confusion when the incident began and some workers at get-go thought the shooter was on the roof.

"It was simply terror," said Cordova, relaying conversations she had with members inside the store. "They grabbed co-workers and customers and either hid or led them to hiding spaces, got them out the back of the store. They started hearing shots and their first instincts was to grab customers and co-workers and try to become to rubber."

Witness: 'It devolved into chaos' in minutes

Anna Haynes said she was in her flat beyond the street from the shop when she heard noises outside that she assumed were firecrackers or a car backfiring. She told CNN she looked outside to see a body on the footing and a man, armed with a semiautomatic rifle, shoot at someone. He then went within the store, and moments later people were running out.

"It devolved into chaos in merely a couple of minutes," she said.

Congressman representing Bedrock calls for 'meaningful gun reform'

Autonomous Rep. Joe Neguse, whose district includes Boulder, said the loss of life "is truly heartbreaking and unimaginable." He expressed condolences to the victims and added that "enough is plenty."

"If we are truly invested in saving lives, then we must accept the willpower to act and to pass meaningful gun reform," Neguse said in a argument. ''The time for inaction is over."

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee was holding a hearing on possible steps to reduce gun violence. The panel'south chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin, tweeted Mon evening that shooting spree and one in Georgia last week have left the nation "reeling."

"And information technology's not just mass shootings: according to the CDC, on average, 109 Americans lose their lives every day to gun violence. It's long by time to act on this nation'due south gun violence epidemic," Durbin said.

Store employee hid behind trash can

Logan Smith was working at the Starbucks kiosk in the store when a customer alerted him that there was an active shooter in the parking lot. Smith told the "Today" show he ran exterior briefly then back within and called 911. He helped hide a coworker backside some trash cans backside the kiosk, and so tried to hide himself.

"I was definitely in a life-threatening state of affairs if the shooter came to the kiosk," he said. When it was over, at least 2 friends and co-workers had been killed, he said. Another friend has not answered his phone, and Smith said he does non yet know that friend'south fate.

"It'south definitely been rough," he said. "It's harder than it was yesterday, just thinking about the friends that I lost.''

Shopper fled to back of shop, saw 'a lot of very broad eyes'

Ryan Borowski was shopping for fries and a Cherry-red Coke when the shooting began. Borowski told CNN he was near the front of the store when he heard the kickoff shot. The store went quiet, he said, similar a restaurant when a waiter drops a tray of plates.

By the third shot, he was running to the back of the store. He never saw the gunman or the victims.

"What I saw was a terrified face running toward me," he said. "We all ran... I saw a lot of very wide eyes."

Boulder constabulary officeholder among 10 shooting victims

The slain officer was identified every bit Eric Talley, 51, who had been with the police section since 2010, Herold said. He went to the store after a call about shots fired and someone conveying a burglarize, she said.

"He was by all accounts one of the outstanding officers of the Boulder Law Department, and his life was cutting besides short," Dougherty said of Talley.

On Tuesday, Biden commended Talley's "infrequent bravery,'' saying, "When the moment to act came, officeholder Talley did non hesitate in his duty, making the ultimate cede in his endeavour to relieve lives. That'due south the definition of an American hero.''

Lull in mass killings during pandemic may exist over

The assail was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA TODAY and Northeastern University. The binge came less than a calendar week after the March 16 shooting that left 8 people dead at three Atlanta-area massage businesses. It follows a lull in mass killings during the pandemic in 2020, which had the smallest number of such attacks in more a decade, according to the database. Mass killings in the database are divers equally 4 or more than dead, not including the shooter.

Kroger 'horrified and heartbroken'

Male monarch Soopers, a Denver-based subsidiary of supermarket giant Kroger, operates more than 150 stores in Colorado and Wyoming.

In a statement, Cincinnati-based Kroger said it is "horrified and heartbroken over the senseless violence that occurred at our King Soopers store."

"In the hours since the shooting, nosotros're learning of truly heroic acts that included associates, customers and first responders selflessly helping to protect and save others," the statement said. "Nosotros will remain forever grateful to the beginning responders who so bravely responded to protect our associates and customers."

The visitor offered prayers and back up for all affected, including the three grocery workers who died in the killings. In the wake of mass shootings elsewhere, Kroger asked shoppers in 2019 to leave firearms at habitation. The change in policy came a twenty-four hour period after grocery rival Walmart made a like shift.

Colorado's history of firearm rampages

Colorado has a grim, contempo history of shooting sprees, all within 70 miles of Boulder. The commencement was a 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. 13 people were killed and 21 wounded by gunfire before the perpetrators – a pair of students – took their own lives.

In 2012, a lonely gunman opened burn down at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a showing of "The Night Knight Rises." The assaulter, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison house, used tear gas and multiple guns as he sealed off doors and terrorized 400 people. Twelve died and 58 others suffered gunshot wounds.

And in May 2019, one student was killed and 8 others injured in an ambush attack at Stem School Highlands Ranch, a charter school located in Douglas County. As in Columbine, the assailants were students. 1 pleaded guilty and the other is awaiting trial in May 2021.

The mass killing, also as the shootings that left eight dead in Georgia last week, have drawn greater scrutiny to a trouble that has been boiling over throughout the past year.

Mass shootings — incidents that hurt or kill more four people, not including the perpetrator — rose nearly 50% in 2020 amid the pandemic that left millions unemployed and millions of teenagers idle.

U.s. TODAY analysis of Gun Violence Annal statistics show mass shootings rose from 417 in 2019 to 611 in 2020, including 95 incidents in June 2020 alone.

Contributing: Mike James, Dan Wolken, Jim Sergent and Elinor Aspegren, USA TODAY; Sady Swanson; The Coloradoan; Alexander Coolidge, Cincinnati Enquirer; The Associated Printing