COLORADO – In the second deadly US mass shooting in a week, a gunman opened fire at a supermarket killing 10 people and the first police officer to arrive on the scene.
The bloodied suspect was arrested after exchange of fire and Police gave few immediate details of the latest shooting and no known motive for the violence, reported Reuters.
The gunman started shooting people at about 3pm at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, a north-central Colorado city at the eastern foot of the Rockies, about 28 miles northwest of Denver.
Frantic shoppers and employees fled for cover through the supermarket as law enforcement officers swarmed the scene, located about two miles from the University of Colorado’s flagship campus.
Sarah Moonshadow, 42, a customer and Boulder resident who was in the store with her son, recounted scenes of pandemonium as gunfire rang out from inside the store.
“We were at the checkout, and shots just started going off,” Moonshadow told Reuters.
The woman broke down in sobs, adding: “I couldn’t help anybody.”
Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold, said 10 people died in the attack at King Soopers grocery and among them was 51-year-old policeman Eric Talley, who was the first officer to respond to the shooting.
Police said the gunman, who was not publicly identified, was injured in the violence but they gave no further details.
Video footage showed a shirtless, bearded man in boxer shorts being led away from the store in handcuffs, before he was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Police in Boulder, Colorado, reported an ‘active shooter’ at a King Soopers grocery store, and aerial footage broadcast live from the scene by local media showed one person being placed in an ambulance and a man in handcuffs https://t.co/9j5m64WvXz pic.twitter.com/wREnM43QsH
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 22, 2021
The man in custody appeared to have a bloody leg and was limping.
The bloodshed came less than a week after gun violence last Tuesday that left eight people dead, including six Asian women, at three day spas in and around Atlanta.
A 21-year-old man has been charged with those killings.