Ten people, including a police officer, were killed during what authorities described as an active shooter situation.
Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold announced the death toll at a news conference Monday night, fighting back tears. Among those killed was 51-year-old Officer Eric Talley, who had been responding to a call about shots fired. He had been with the department since 2010.
Police announced a suspect was seriously injured and taken into custody. It isn’t clear how many people were involved in the shooting.
The suspect was getting medical treatment and there was no further threat to the public, authorities said. 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.
Victims’ families were still being notified so their names weren’t released, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.
“This is a tragedy and a nightmare for Boulder County, and in response, we have cooperation and assistance from local, state and federal authorities,” Dougherty said.
Yamaguchi said police were still investigating and didn’t have details on a motive for the shooting at the King Soopers store in Boulder, which is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado.
Law enforcement vehicles and officers massed outside the store, including SWAT teams, and at least three helicopters landed on the roof. Some windows at the front of the store were broken.
At one point, authorities said over a loudspeaker that the building was surrounded and that “you need to surrender.”
Sarah Moonshadow told the Denver Post that two shots rang out just after she and her son, Nicolas Edwards, finished buying strawberries. She said she told her son to get down and then “we just ran.”
Once they got outside, she said they saw a body in the parking lot. Edwards said police were speeding into the lot and pulled up next to the body.
“I knew we couldn’t do anything for the guy,” he said. “We had to go.”
James Bentz told the Post that he was in the meat section when he heard what he thought was a misfire, then a series of pops.
“I was then at the front of a stampede,” he said.
Bentz said he jumped off a loading dock out back to escape and that younger people were helping older people off of it.
One person was taken from the shooting scene to Foothills Hospital in Boulder, said Rich Sheehan, spokesman for Boulder Community Health, which operates the hospital.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis tweeted a statement that his “heart is breaking as we watch this unspeakable event unfold in our Boulder community.”
Kroger, which owns King Soopers, shared the following statement Monday evening:
“We are horrified and deeply saddened by the senseless violence that occurred at our King Soopers store located at the Table Mesa Drive in Boulder, Colorado
The entire Kroger family offers our 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.
To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, we are referring questions to the Boulder Police Department…” KLTV7 News