Gunman, 21, is charged with murder for shooting and killing 10 people

The gunman responsible for a mass shooting at a Colorado grocery store on Monday has been identified as 21-year-old Ahmad Al Issa. 

Alissa, who has lived most of his life in the US, is now in custody and has been charged with 10 counts of murder. At 2.40pm, he opened fire on King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, killing ten people.  

He was taken into at 3.28pm and was transported to the hospital to be treated for a leg wound. Al Issa is now in a stable condition and has been charged but his motive remains unknown.   

Police have still not yet confirmed that he was the man who was seen being led out of the grocery store in handcuffs, bleeding from the leg. 

The victims have been identified as; Denny Strong, 20, Neven Stanisic, 23, Rikki Olds, 25, Suzanne Fountain, 59,  Terri Licher, 51, Eric Talley, 51, Kevin Mahoney, 61, Lynn Murray, 62, Jodie Waters, 65. 

Officials revealed at a press conference on Tuesday morning that some of the victims were at the store to get their COVID-19 vaccine. 

Al Issa is currently in the hospital but he is expected to be discharged later today to be booked into Boulder County Jail. 

Scroll down for video 

It remains unclear what his motive was or why it took so long for him to be formally identified by law enforcement.   

Witnesses recalled hearing multiple loud bangs outside the shop before the sound of gunshots drew closer. Some say the gunman just ‘came in and started shooting’. As of Tuesday morning;  

• The shooter is in custody but has still not been named or charged; an update is expected at 8.30am local time (10.30am EST) 
• Of the ten victims, only one has been identified: hero cop Eric Talley 
• Witnesses described the gunman opening fire at 2.50pm; it was all over by 3.21pm
• President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been brief on the shooting
• The shooting comes just a week after a local judge blocked a ban on assault style rifles in Boulder; the decision was hailed by the NRA 

Nevin Sloan, who narrowly escaped with his wife Quinlan, said panic then set in as shoppers were forced to decide whether to stay put or make a break for the exit.

‘All of a sudden we started hearing more, like ‘bang, bang, bang, bang’ and I sprinted over to her and just told her ‘hey we need to get out of here’,’ he told CBS, saying they had helped others flee through an emergency exit.

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.’

Another witness told the paper that the gunman ‘just came in and started shooting’.  

Meanwhile a grandfather described the ‘traumatizing’ moment his son-in-law and two granddaughters hid in a closet when the gunman opened fire. 

The grandfather, who identified himself as Steven, said his son-in-law was in the King Soopers pharmacy to get a Covid-19 vaccine with his granddaughters, aged 13 and 14, when the shots went off.  

‘There was shooting, and he saw it and got the girls down,’ he told NBC. They ran and hid upstairs in a coat closet for an hour, in the coats.’ 

First responders held a procession for the slain officer around 8pm local time Monday night. 

An emergency vehicle carrying Talley’s body was escorted by other first responders from King Soopers to a funeral home. 

Along the way, officers and first responders honored the fallen officer by saluting.  

According to a statement from Talley’s father, Homer, the fallen officer was a father-of-seven who joined the force when he was 40.

‘He took his job as a police officer very seriously. 

‘He had seven children. The youngest is 7 year old.

‘He loved his kids and his family more than anything. 

‘He joined the police force when he was 40 years old,’ the statement reads.

‘He was looking for a job to keep himself off of the front lines and was learning to be a drone operator. 

He didn’t want to put his family through something like this and he believed in Jesus Christ.

‘Others were remembering Talley for his kindness and recalled how he once in 2013 waded into calf-deep water to try and save some ducklings. 

Shortly after learning of the incident, Colorado Gov Jared Polis said in a statement: ‘My heart is breaking as we watch this unspeakable event unfold in our Boulder community. 

‘We are making every public safety resource available to assist the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department as they work to secure the store. 

‘I’m incredibly grateful to the brave men and women who have responded to the scene to help the victims of this senseless tragedy.’

The governor continued: ‘This is very much an active situation and we continue to monitor very closely. We ask for your patience as law enforcement works tirelessly to secure the site.

‘Right now, the biggest priority is to let local law enforcement and the City of Boulder do their work to ensure the safety of those involved.’

Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver said that ‘words can do no justice to the tragedy that has unfolded this afternoon’.

‘Our community will soon grieve our losses, and begin our healing.

‘Our brave police officers and first responders have the gratitude of our entire city.’ 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki shared Monday evening that President Joe Biden ‘has been briefed on the shooting in Colorado and he will be kept up to date by his team as there are additional developments’. 

In Brussels, Biden’s secretary of state Antony Blinken began remarks at NATO headquarters by offering his ‘deepest condolences to the loved ones of those who were killed, including a law enforcement officer’. 

Former Rep Gabby Giffords also released a statement about the shooting on Monday, saying: ‘This is an especially personal tragedy for me. 

‘I survived a shooting at a grocery store, in a tragedy that devastated my beloved community of Tucson.

‘It’s been 10 years, and countless American communities have had to face something similar. This is not normal, and it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s beyond time for our leaders to take action.’

Giffords said that every victim ‘had hopes, dreams and people who loved them. They are no longer with us because of preventable tragedies’.

Colorado previously suffered two of the most infamous mass shootings in US history – massacres that prompted nationwide soul-searching but did not result in major changes to gun ownership laws.

In 1999, two boys shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School before killing themselves. 

Then in 2012, a heavily armed man stormed a movie theater in Aurora, murdering 12. The gunman is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The city of Boulder imposed a ban on ‘assault-style weapons’ and large-capacity gun magazines in the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting in 2018. 

But a judge last week blocked that ban, local media reported, in a decision hailed by the NRA. 

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,’ the statement reads. 

Harrowing emergency radio obtained by the Colorado Sun revealed some of the initial moments as Officer Talley arrived to the scene. 

‘Shooter is inside!’ an officer frantically called out from inside the store. ‘He just shot at us twice.’ 

A few seconds later someone says over the radio: ‘Officer down inside the building!’

As the incident unfolded, officers from the Boulder Police Department warned locals to ‘avoid the area’.

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. 

However, they did not release the condition of the patient. 

One video of the incident from YouTube shows two victims lying on the ground in the parking lot of the store. 

At least one victim is seen lying on the floor inside the store just moments before more gunshots are heard. Local reports say one victim is a police officer.  

Television helicopter video showed law enforcement vehicles and officers massing outside, including SWAT teams, and at least three helicopters on the roof of the store in Boulder, about 25 miles northwest of Denver.

Just before 4.30pm local time, Boulder police tweeted: ‘Please avoid the area of Table Mesa & Broadway! This is still a very active scene. Do NOT broadcast on social media any tactical information you might see. 

‘We will continue to tweet updates as we have them. If you live nearby please stay inside for now.’

About 45 minutes later, police tweeted: ‘Emergency notification just went out: Boulder police asking people near 17th and Grove to shelter in place while they respond to report of armed, dangerous individual’. 

‘PD is investigating to determine if this is related to King Soopers shooting.’ 

Later Monday evening, police said the shelter in place notice at 17th and Grove was lifted and they said that this incident was not related to the King Soopers shooting. 

Officers were seen with their guns drawn, and some windows at the front of the store were broken. 

Authorities over a loudspeaker said the building was surrounded and that ‘you need to surrender.’ They said to come out with hands up and unarmed.

An ambulance pulled away from the store, apparently carrying the bleeding man brought out of the store in handcuffs. 

After the man was escorted from the store, several minutes later, a line of people who appeared to have been shopping at the time were seen being taken to safety. 

Dean Schiller told The Associated Press that he had just left the supermarket when he heard gunshots and saw three people lying face down, two in the parking lot and one near the doorway. 

He said he ‘couldn’t tell if they were breathing’. 

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.

Ryan Borowski told CNN that he was in the store when the shooter opened fire. 

‘We told employees what was going on so everybody helped each other and we just ran to safety as quickly as we could,’ Borowski said. 

‘I didn’t see the shooter. I saw terrified faces running towards me and that’s when I turned and ran the other direction.

Borowski said that Boulder ‘feels like the safest spot in America and I just nearly got killed for getting a soda, you know, and a bag of chips. Doesn’t feel good’.

A man who said he was shopping at the store told KCNC-TV that he heard ‘one loud bang, thought somebody just dropped something an employee or something, and then another, and then by the third one, everybody was running’. 

He said they ran to the back of the store, found the employee area and workers told them how to escape. He said they walked single file, with their arms on the backs of those in front of them. 

Another man told KCNC said his family was inside the pharmacy at King Soopers to get a Covid-19 vaccine when the shooter entered the building. 

‘I got the call from my daughter and my grandchildren that my son-in-law walked into the pharmacy for him to get a Covid-19 shot and the shooter came in, shot the woman in front of them,’ the man told the station. 

He said his family then hid in a closet for an hour before they were rescued. 

‘They were texting, hiding in the coat closet. Turned their phone off and were going ‘we’re hiding, we’re okay’ you know, ‘don’t call’ you know the phone would ring and give away their position,’ he added.  

Law enforcement SWAT teams from Jefferson County and Boulder were dispatched to the market in the southern part of the city of Boulder. 

The FBI is also on the scene. 

‘At the request of the Boulder Police Department, FBI Denver personnel are assisting with an investigation into an active shooter situation at a King Soopers grocery store on Table Mesa Drive in Boulder,’ the FBI’s Denver branch tweeted. 

One man told KDVR that he was ‘terrified’ and ‘in shock initially when we realized what was happening’.

The man said he was on his to pick up coffee from King Soopers when the shooting started.  

Through tears, he noted that ‘people my age, my generation are used to this’.

A person who answered the telephone at a nearby sandwich shop said he and his employees were locked down in the back of the store and all were safe. 

Someone who answered the phone at nail studio next door said she and her colleagues were safe. Neither had details on what happened at the market across the street. 

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 smallest number of such attacks in more than a decade, according to the database, which tracks mass killings defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter.

Police in Atlanta are still investigating suspected gunman Robert Aaron Long’s motive in connection with the shooting on Tuesday. The FBI is assisting with the investigation.

All eight deceased victims were identified as: Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Soon C. Park, 44; Hyun J. Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69, and 63-year-old Yong Yue. 

Long, a 21-year-old Atlanta-area resident who is white, told police that sexual frustration led him to commit the violence. 

Father-of-seven cop killed in Boulder shooting wanted a new job ‘off the front lines’ to protect his family, his father reveals as his sister posts heartbreaking childhood photo 

Eric Talley had been looking for a new job away from the ‘front lines’ to protect his family and avoid something like this happening, his father has revealed.

In the aftermath of the massacre, Talley’s father said the slain 51-year-old officer had been learning to become a drone operator so he could step away from the front line. 

‘He didn’t want to put his family through something like this,’ his father Homer Talley said. 

Talley is survived by his his wife and their seven children. Their youngest child is seven years old. 

‘He loved his kids and his family more than anything,’ his father said. 

It comes as Talley’s sister Kirstin paid tribute to her brother with a heartbreaking childhood photo of them both, saying she could ‘not explain how beautiful he was and what a devastating loss this is to so many’. 

‘Officer Eric Talley is my big brother. He died today in the Boulder shooting,’ she wrote in her tribute. 

‘My heart is broken. I cannot explain how beautiful he was and what a devastating loss this is to so many. Fly high my sweet brother. You always wanted to be a pilot (damn color blindness). Soar.’

Talley had been working as an officer for just over a decade after enrolling in the Aurora’s Police Training Academy when he was 40 years old.  

Talley, who had a master’s degree, had quit his stable IT job in 2010 after one of his close friends died in a DUI crash. 

‘He was pretty driven to join law enforcement,’ his police academy friend Jeremy Herko told the Washington Post. 

‘That was his life. He absolutely loved his job and wanted to serve the community. 

‘It was remarkable to me that somebody would go to law enforcement from IT. He lost pay. He lost time away from his family. He joined the police academy without a guaranteed job.’ 

In a separate social media tribute, Herko said of his slain friend: ‘He was a devout Christian, he had to buy a 15-passenger van to haul all his kids around, and he was the nicest guy in the world.’   

Another friend named Kevin Lederer posted a picture of Talley in his younger days and said that the fallen police officer had loved his job.  

‘RIP Eric, my old friend. I know you loved serving your community. I am glad you were a part of my life growing up together,’ he said. 

After joining the force, Talley made headlines in 2013 as one of three officers who helped save 11 ducklings that had become stuck in a drainage ditch with their mother.  

Talley eventually waded into calf-deep water to rescue the ducks one by one from the pipes, the Boulder Daily Camera reported at the time.