Live Updates: Boulder, Colorado Shooting
BOULDER, Colo. — Multiple people were killed in a shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo., on Monday, the police said, with an officer among the victims.
A suspect was in custody and was injured during the shooting, said Cmdr. Kerry Yamaguchi of the Boulder Police.
The ABC affiliate in Denver, citing multiple law enforcement officials, reported that at least six people were killed in the shooting.
“This is a tragedy and a nightmare for Boulder County,” said the Boulder County district attorney, Michael Dougherty.
Police officers did not confirm the number of deaths during a news conference on Monday evening. They did not release information about a possible motive.
Dean Schiller, who posted a live video from the scene shortly after the shooting began, said he heard about a dozen shots and saw three people who appeared to be wounded — two in the parking lot and one inside the supermarket.
By 4:50 p.m. Mountain time, dozens of police officers were still on the scene and stationed around the building. More than a dozen people have been led out of the supermarket, a King Soopers in a residential area a couple of miles south of the campus of the University of Colorado. The grocery store usually draws a mix of families and college students.
The police have not commented on whether there were any casualties.
One patient from the scene was being treated at Foothills Hospital in Boulder, according to a spokesman for the Boulder Community Health System, who said he was not able to release information on the patient’s condition.
The hospital is a level-two trauma center. It was not immediately clear if any other patients had been transported to level-one trauma centers in the area.
Videos showed a handcuffed man being escorted from the building by officers at about 3:30 p.m., shirtless and with his right leg appearing to be covered in blood.
“I have some friends who are in there who are very close to me, so I’m just hoping that they’re all right,” Mr. Schiller said.
In Mr. Schiller’s video, gunshots could be heard coming from inside the store, with officers gathering at the entrance.
Over a loudspeaker, police officers called to the scene could be heard saying, “The entire building is surrounded, you need to surrender.”
“Come out with your hands up,” the officers said.
Using a lift, several officers reached the roof of the building while more than a dozen lined up outside the main doors.
Police officers set up hazard tape around the supermarket and closed off a street nearby. SWAT officers and F.B.I. agents were also on the scene, along with dozens of other police cruisers.
Newlyweds Quinlyn and Neven Sloan, both 21, had stopped into the store to pick up supplies for beef stroganoff when they heard the shooting. Ms. Sloan, a student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said that at first she didn’t know what the noise was.
The couple had split up in the store — he was in produce, she said, and she was standing in front of the dairy case — when customers began running.
“It was muffled at first,” she said, “and I thought maybe someone had dropped something, but then it went again, probably about 15 to 20 shots, really fast. My husband came up and shoved me out the door, and yelled, ‘Call 911!’ Then he ran back in to make sure a couple of older ladies who were in the aisles got out OK.”
Sprinting across the parking lot, she said, she took cover behind a building, to be joined minutes later by her husband. Only then, she added, did they look down and realize that, because they hadn’t bothered to use a cart, they had fled with their arms full of the meat, noodles and sherry they had intended to buy.
Alex Arellano, 35, was working in the meat department at King Soopers when he heard a series of gunshots, and then saw people running toward an exit near his department.
“The shots are getting closer,” he recalled. “I’m thinking of my parents, and I was freaking out.” For a while, Mr. Arellano said he and two other men hid in the department. He said he did not see the assailant, but could hear the gunfire.
“We were scared cause, you know, there’s entry points where that individual could show up,” he said. “I thought I was going to die.”
Mr. Arellano and the other men eventually escaped through an exit in the back of the building, he said.
Taylor Shaver, who works at Art Cleaners, a dry cleaning and laundry business near the supermarket, said in an interview on Monday that she heard at least 10 gunshots and saw people running from the grocery store.
“I’m in the bathroom hiding,” Ms. Shaver said. “I heard this loud boom. I instantly knew. There was a ton of shots. My stomach dropped.”
Ms. Shaver, 18, added that it was particularly unnerving because it was her first day working alone at the dry cleaning business. During a phone interview, she said she had left the bathroom to see what was going outside the business.
“Oh my gosh, you can see all these people walking with their hands up,” she said. “I’ve never seen this many police officers in my life.”
Jordan Crumby, a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said in an interview that she was about to get a tattoo with the word “warning” on her hip at Auspicious Tattoo, a shop across from the grocery store, when the shooting began.
“From here, I can see the window that is shattered,” she said. “Everyone is still on lockdown.”
Ms. Crumby, 31, said she stepped outside to record a video of the scene for her Instagram feed, when the police waved her away. In the videos, officers with tactical gear and rifles could be seen swarming the shopping center. People from the grocery store, she said, were being evacuated.
“They had their hands over their heads and they’re getting escorted out,” she said. “I said, ‘We should probably go inside.’”
President Biden had been briefed on the shooting in Boulder and would be kept apprised of any further developments, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said on Twitter.
On Twitter, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he was following the events as they unfolded.
“My prayers are with our fellow Coloradans in this time of sadness and grief as we learn more about the extent of the tragedy,” Mr. Polis said, adding that he was making every public safety resource available to assist the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department.
Sam Weaver, the mayor of Boulder, said on Twitter: “Words can do no justice to the tragedy that has unfolded this afternoon. Our community will soon grieve our losses, and begin our healing.”
Colorado has been the scene of a number of multiple fatal shootings in recent years, including these that made national headlines:
May 7, 2019 — Two students enter a charter school in Highlands Ranch, a Denver suburb near Littleton, and fire at fellow students in two locations. A student who tackles one of the gunmen is fatally shot, and eight others are wounded by gunfire. The two assailants are captured.
Dec. 31, 2017 — A sheriff’s deputy who barricaded himself in an apartment in Highlands Ranch engages in a gun battle with police officers responding to reports of a disturbance. One officer is killed and four are wounded before the police kill the gunman. Two civilians are wounded.
Nov. 27, 2015 — A man armed with an assault-style rifle enters a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs and opens fire, killing two civilians and a police officer who confronts him; nine other people are wounded in a 5-hour siege before the gunman surrenders.
Oct. 31, 2015 — A man carrying a semiautomatic rifle shoots and kills three people, apparently at random, on a residential street near downtown Colorado Springs, and then is confronted and shot dead by police officers.
July 20, 2012 — A man walks to the front of a crowded movie theater in Aurora during a midnight screening of a Batman film, sets off tear gas grenades and opens fire on the audience, killing 12 people and wounding 58 with gunfire. Another 12 are injured in the ensuing panic. The gunman is arrested in the theater parking lot.
April 20, 1999 — Two students storm into Columbine High School in Littleton, fatally shooting a teacher and 12 fellow students, and then kill themselves.
