They were between 20 and 65 years old.
And many of them were caught by the hail of bullets at work.
Authorities revealed on Tuesday the identity of the 10 fatalities of the shooting at the King Soopers supermarket in the city of Boulder, Colorado, a few hours after reporting that a 21-year-old man is already in custody in connection with the attack and faces 10 counts of murder in the first degree.
The attacker's motivation is unknown, although reports have emerged about his possible mental health problems.
One of those killed is Eric Talley, 51, a police officer who
is survived by seven children
and who lost his life while trying to neutralize the suspect during the shooting.
Others were simply on the premises as customers or employees.
The fatalities of the attack - which has reignited the national conversation about the legal sale of assault weapons - were identified as
Denny Stong
(20 years),
Neven Stanisic
(23),
Rikki Olds
(25),
Tralona Bartkowiak
(49),
Eric Talley
(51),
Suzanne Fountain
(59),
Teri Leiker
(51),
Kevin Mahoney
(61),
Lynn Murray
(62) and
Jodi Waters
(65).
Police officers, employees and customers of the King Soopers supermarket flee the scene of the shooting in Boulder, Colorado.
Getty Images
This is what you know so far about the deceased.
Noticias Telemundo will continue to update as new details emerge.
Eric Talley: "I was not afraid to die"
Talley, who joined the Boulder Police Department in 2010, was the first officer to respond to the scene, according to Boulder Chief Maris Herold.
She described him as
"a very kind man" with seven children, between the ages of 5 and 20.
"He cared for this community. He cared for his family and he was willing to die to protect others," Herold told a news conference.
Thanks to him and other officers there were no more numerous fatalities, he stressed.
His father, Homer Talley, 74, told The Associated Press from his ranch in Texas that the police officer "loved his family more than anything else" and was "not afraid to die."
“At age 40, he decided he wanted to serve his community,” he said, “He left his job behind the desk.
He just wanted to serve, and that's what he did. "
"My heart is broken," says one of the policeman's sisters who died in the Colorado shooting
March 23, 202100: 55
Talley's sister Kirstin wrote on Twitter:
"My heart is broken. I can't explain how beautiful he was
and how devastating this loss is to so many. Fly high my sweet brother. You always wanted to be a pilot (damn color blind)" .
Carlee Lough, a 28-year-old who worked with Rikki Olds in King Soopers, said she said goodbye to the victim at 2:00 p.m. after her work shift had ended.
It was the last time he saw her alive.
"She was a fun-loving spirit ... She would do anything to make you smile," Lough told
The Washington Post
.
He said he wrote to his partner to find out if she was okay after seeing the shooting on the news, but it wasn't until 3:00 a.m. that he learned that Olds was dead.
Her Aunt Lori recalled her in a Facebook post.
"Thank you all for all your prayers, but yesterday the Lord got himself a beautiful young angel," he wrote.
"We will publish details on the (funeral) arrangements in the coming days."
Suzanne Fountain: "One of the kindest people I have ever met"
At 59, Suzanne Fountain took up gardening prolifically, sharing her tomato, basil and lettuce crops with nearby neighbors.
Fountain was described by her friend Helen Forster as a charming person.
His smile lit up.
It's a great loss, "he told
The Washington Post
. Forster and Fountain had known each other for more than 20 years.
"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
"He was one of the kindest people I have ever met," the woman said.
And she added that her friend had been a fair and calm person.
"It was a pleasure to be around you," he said.
Kevin Mahoney: "It represented all things of love"
According to his daughter Erika, 61-year-old Kevin Mahoney couldn't live long enough to meet his granddaughter.
Erika Mahoney mourned her father's death on Twitter, saying the man "stood for all things love."
"I am so grateful that he was able to walk me down the aisle last summer," she wrote Tuesday.
"Now I'm pregnant. I know he wants me to be strong for his granddaughter. I will love you forever, Dad. You are always with me."
Tralona Bartkowiak: "He had just got engaged"
Tralona Lynn Bartkowiak, 49, affectionately called Lonna, was the manager of a store in Boulder that sold yoga and festival clothing, according to her brother, Michael Bartkowiak.
Bartkowiak described his sister, the oldest of four born in California, as
"just a ray of light."
He had moved to Boulder to run the store called Umba, which he owned.
“He rented a house outside of Boulder,” the brother said, “and lived there with his little Chihuahua, Opal.
She had just gotten engaged. "
Teri Leiker: three decades working for the supermarket where she died
Teri Leiker, 51, had worked for about 30 years at King Soopers,
her friend, Alexis Knutson, 22
, told
The New York Times
.
Knutson met Leiker through a program called Best Buddies, which connects University of Colorado Boulder students with members of the community with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The two attended various sporting events together, and Leiker loved to cheer on the teams, according to her friend.
Knutson said what had happened was incomprehensible to him.
"The fact that this happened is just devastating, especially in a place where she goes to work every day," he said.
Denny Stong: "I thought the government should restrict weapons"
Denny Stong, 20, had worked at King Soopers for a few years.
A friend from high school, Molly Proch, described him as one of the kindest people she had ever met.
On video: Panic moments during a shooting at a Colorado supermarket
March 22, 202101: 53
Stong enjoyed hunting, but also supported the strengthening of certain regulations on firearms, his friend told the
Times
.
"He was very passionate about expressing how he thought the government should handle weapons," to avoid mass shootings, he said.
"And this is precisely how he lost his life."
Neven Stanisic: a son of refugees
Neven Stanisic, 23, was at the supermarket where the shooting occurred because he went there to fix coffee machines at an on-site Starbucks,
the family's priest, the Rev. Radovan Petrovic
, told the
Times
.
The young man was leaving King Soopers, and was in the parking lot when he was shot.
Stanisic was the
son of Serbian refugees who had fled Bosnia during the 1990s,
according to the newspaper.
His Facebook page is full of anime drawings and his profile picture shows him posing with friends from his high school in Lakewood, Colorado.
According to the priest, Stanisic was the hope "of a family who, like many refugees, came basically with nothing but their lives, to start a new life here."
With information from The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN
