"I thought I was going to die, the bullets were very close, the gunman was maybe behind us shooting"

Andy Arellano was working Monday at the King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, a city of 100,000 people outside Denver, Colorado, and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, when the shooting began.

“I thought I was going to die,” he told Noticias Telemundo, “one of my managers told me to run, the bullets were very close.

The gunman was maybe behind us shooting. "

Ten people lost their lives that afternoon, allegedly shot by a 21-year-old who started shooting at random in the business for reasons that the authorities have not yet clarified.

Arellano hid in a refrigerator: "A bullet was fired in my direction," he explains, "I still feel frightened and frightened."

At that time, he adds, he could only think of his parents and sisters.

He came out alive, after 20 minutes of confinement, but lost a friend and two co-workers.

[Authorities identify the alleged murderer and the 10 victims from Colorado but do not clarify a possible motive]

Kip Dixon heard the first shot and thought it was a shelf that had fallen.

"Suddenly people were running through my section shouting 'run, run, they're shooting," the 66-year-old man told USA Today.

["A bullet was fired in my direction": the account of a survivor of the Boulder massacre]

The fatalities of the attack - which has reactivated the national discussion on 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).

"Someone came running up to me with a terrified face and I started running to where she was going as well," Ryan Borowski, 37, told The Washington Post.

"We heard more shots, maybe eight in total," added the man who was one of the customers who ran to the back of the supermarket to protect himself from the attacker.

"A bullet was fired in my direction": the story of a survivor of the Boulder massacre

March 24, 202103: 04

Borowski had gone to the store to buy ice cream, but when he entered the store around 2:25 pm, he changed his mind and went to the aisle where the fries are.

The change of plan probably saved his life

, as the shots came from where he would have been choosing the ice cream.

He managed to get out with other people through the back of the store where some employees were: "We told them there was a man shooting and they helped us find the exit. We escaped through the loading area. We had to jump, dodge a truck and to run".

[The suspect in the Colorado shooting had been charged with misdemeanors and suffers from delusions, according to his family.

Despite this, he was able to buy weapons]

Sarah Moonshadow had just paid for some strawberries she bought when she heard two shots.

He was with his 21-year-old son.

"We crawled on the ground to get out of there," they told the Denver Post.

An armored truck rammed

into the store's

windows

to get a clear view of the inside of the supermarket.

“The whole building is surrounded.

He has to surrender now, ”the police said over the loudspeakers.  

[Save your life: this is how you should react if you find yourself in a shootout]

Maggie Montoya, who works in the supermarket pharmacy, told CNN what the killer responded.

"He said, 'I give up, I'm naked."

"I thought I was going to die," says a Hispanic who escaped the Boulder shooting

March 24, 202 104: 00

["I thought I was going to die," recounts a Hispanic who escaped the Boulder shooting]

Reports accessed by our sister network NBC News indicate that the young man may have a history of mental problems.

At the moment, there is no evidence to suggest that the crime he committed is a terrorist or hateful act, according to authorities.

His family told investigators that the young man, who will turn 22 in April, 

suffers from some form of mental illness

, according to The Associated Press news agency.

Sometimes he would tell them that there were people who were after him.

The authorities described him as a person 

"prone to sudden anger

.

"

[Many were shot while working: What is known about the fatalities of the Colorado supermarket shooting]

What is known of the alleged attacker of the massacre in Boulder, Colorado?

March 23, 202102: 29

"I feel lucky to be alive

," said Louis Saxton, a young student who lives near King Soopers who went to the grocery store after school.

He heard a gunshot when someone warned him to run.

He fled the scene.

"Of course my reaction was just to run and get as far away as possible," said the boy who ended up going to a relative's house 20 minutes away from the attack.

[The City of Boulder had a ban on the purchase of assault weapons.

A judge removed her 10 days before the deadly shooting]

Saxton, a freshman music student at the University of Colorado, returned to his neighborhood on Tuesday and went to King Soopers with his cello to perform in honor of the victims: "Music has that unique ability to

bring people together in moments of extreme pain

, like now. "

With information from CNN, The Washington Post and USA Today.