Ten people, including a police officer, were killed Monday in a shooting at a supermarket located in a busy shopping plaza in south Boulder, Colorado.
There is
a detained suspect
who is hospitalized after being injured but will be released "shortly" and charged with 10 counts of murder.
He has been identified as Ahmad Alyssa, 21, who lived in a nearby town and "has spent most of his life in the United States," according to authorities.
Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold also provided the press with the identity of the 10 victims, who are between 20 and 65 years old.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis called the shooting "a
senseless slaughter
."
"Today we have seen the
face of evil,
" he condemned, "not only did we lose 10 lives, but
this is a true horror
and terror for all of us."
The authorities assured that the suspect acted alone and that they continue with the investigations to determine the motive for the incident.
"There is much that we still do not know," said the authorities.
What happened?
Around 2:30 pm (local time), the Boulder Police Department began receiving calls about gunfire in the area and a "possible person with a patrol rifle," said Police Chief Maris Herold. .
Dozens of agents went to the King Soopers supermarket, including members of the special tactics SWAT team.
Upon arrival, they were shot by a gunman and shot into the store.
The agents demanded that the attacker surrender.
Some officers
climbed onto the roof
to access the scene.
The images recorded by a person present at the scene show a person lying in the entrance and in the parking lot,
several injured.
“There are several people who shot inside the store,” Roberto Ibarra, a resident of this city, told Noticias Telemundo.
Officers later removed a shirtless individual with a leg injury and placed him under arrest.
They did not clarify if it was the attacker.
Minutes later, they guarded the exit of the survivors unharmed.
How many victims are there and who were they?
The shooting killed
10 civilians
, including
51-year-old
police officer
Eric Talley
, who had been in the department for 11 years and was the father of seven children.
He was
the first officer to arrive on the scene
Monday afternoon after receiving reports of the shooting.
The police chief called
Talley's actions
"heroic."
His father, Homer Talley, said his son took his job as a policeman very seriously.
"He loved his children and his family more than anyone," he said.
"He was clearly one of
the most prominent
officers in the Boulder Police Department, and his life has been cut short," said Boulder County Prosecutor Michael Dougherty.
Is the motive for the attack known?
For the moment, the authorities have not offered any information in this regard, and have advanced that the investigation could last months.
How did the survivors of the shooting escape?
Customers and employees fled to the rear for safety.
Others took refuge in nearby tents.
“
I panicked
.
I said 'what's happening,' Andy Arellano, a supermarket employee, told Noticias Telemundo.
“
More shots were heard
and I see that my manager was opening the door on one side, pulling people out.
And he came to my apartment, saying 'Andy, let's go, let's go', and after a while they heard “pas, pas, pas!”, He continued.
"I don't know if they are alive": Latino employee searches for his colleagues after the shooting in a Colorado supermarket
March 23, 202101: 37
Two teenagers, ages 13 and 14, hid in a closet
for an hour upstairs before the police rescued them.
The young women had gone to the King Soopers to accompany their father who had
gone to get vaccinated against COVID-19
.
"They were communicating with my daughter through her phone, sending text messages. Then the police came in through the roof and protected them," her grandfather Steven told NBC News affiliate KUSA in Denver.
The girls managed to escape through the back of the business.
"It's traumatizing for them too," her grandfather said.
"I am really concerned about his mental and emotional health," he added.
"I thought this was not going to happen in Boulder," Steven said and called for better gun control laws.
"This has to stop," he
claimed.
For his part, Ryan Borowski, another of the people who was inside the supermarket when the attacker began shooting, told CNN: "
I feel very lucky
."
"I don't remember anyone yelling [...] I knew I had to move," he added.
Borowski had gone to the supermarket to buy ice cream.
“I was on the east side of the store and walked to the west side.
I changed my mind and decided not to [...] Almost the moment I made that decision I heard the first two shots.
By the third shot I was running with everyone in the background, "he said.
Borowski managed to escape through the emergency exit with about two dozen people.
He did not see the attacker.
The seventh shooting this year
The attack in Boulder, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado, shocked a state that has witnessed several mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School shooting and the shooting at the Aurora theater in 2012.
This is the
seventh mass murder this year
in the United States, and it follows the March 16 shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, according to a database from The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
It came after a hiatus in mass shootings during the pandemic, which had the fewest such attacks in more than a decade, according to this database, which tracks murders with four or more dead, not including the shooter.
With information from NBC News, CNN and AP.