Colorado Supermarket Shooting Leaves 10 People Dead Including Police Officer

A suspect was in custody, authorities said.

Police swarmed a grocery store in the western US state of Colorado Monday following reports of an active shooter and multiple casualties, law enforcement and eyewitnesses said, with at least one man detained, LA Times reported.

Investigators had just begun sorting through evidence and witness interviews and didn’t have details on a motive for the shooting, said Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

The attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the US, 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.

The slain officer was identified as Eric Talley, 51, who 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.

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

Matthew Kirsch, the acting US 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.

Video posted on YouTube showed one person on the floor inside the store and two more outside on the ground. What sounds like two gunshots are heard at the beginning of the video.

Law enforcement vehicles and officers, including SWAT teams, amassed outside the store, and at least three helicopters were on the roof. Some windows at the front of the store were broken.

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.”