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A “person of interest” is injured and in custody, Police Commander Kerry Yamaguchi told reporters after the incident at the King Soopers store in Boulder, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of the state capital, Denver.
A Colorado State Patrol officer salutes as a caravan carrying fallen Boulder police officer Eric Talley leaves the King Soopers store in Boulder, Colorado, on March 22, 2021 after a mass shooting on March 22, 2021. Photo: Jason Connolly / AFP.
BOULDER – A gunman killed multiple people, including a police officer at a Colorado grocery store on Monday, police said, in the latest shooting in the western state, the scene of two of America’s most infamous mass killings. .
A “person of interest” is injured and in custody, Police Commander Kerry Yamaguchi told reporters after the incident at the King Soopers store in Boulder, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of the state capital, Denver.
“We have several people who died in this incident. And I am sorry to report that one of them was a Boulder police officer,” Yamaguchi said, without confirming the number of deaths or any possible motive.
Various US media reports said at least six people were killed in the shooting, citing anonymous law enforcement sources.
Video broadcast live earlier showed a middle-aged white man, shirtless and apparently covered in blood, detained by police and taken from the supermarket.
The suspect in custody was the only person suffering “serious injuries at this time,” Yamaguchi said, without confirming that the man in the video was that suspect.
President Joe Biden, who last month asked Congress to enact “common sense” gun law reforms, has been briefed on the shooting, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted.
“My heart breaks as we watch this unspeakable event unfold in our Boulder community,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said, calling the incident a “senseless tragedy.”
“Words cannot do justice to the tragedy that has unfolded this afternoon,” Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver tweeted.
“Our community will soon mourn our losses and our healing will begin.”
Eyewitnesses inside the supermarket at the time of the shooting said they heard multiple shots before fleeing through a back entrance.
“They almost killed me for buying a soda and a bag of potato chips,” Ryan Borowski, who was at the store, told CNN when he heard at least eight shots and escaped.
“It felt amazing that everyone was helping each other and our instincts were on the same page and we ran … I don’t know why other people didn’t, and I’m sorry they froze. This just didn’t happen.”
The first unverified images broadcast live by a witness showed at least three people lying face down on the ground both inside and outside the store, before several new shots were heard.
‘WITHOUT SENSE’
Dozens of armored vehicles, ambulances and armed personnel, including FBI agents and SWAT teams, were deployed to the scene.
Later, shoppers who had been safely removed from the store sat wrapped in blankets, talking to emergency workers in the snow-covered parking area.
“Our hearts are shattered by this senseless act of violence,” said King Soopers spokeswoman Kelli McGannon, praising the “first responders who responded so bravely to these acts of violence.”
The shooting follows another mass shooting last week at Asian-owned spas in the southeastern state of Georgia that left eight people dead.
Colorado has previously suffered two of the most infamous mass shootings in American history.
In 1999, two teenagers shot dead 12 classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School before dying by suicide.
Then, in 2012, a heavily armed man broke into a movie theater showing a Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado, murdering 12. The gunman is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
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