A Colorado supermarket shooting killed several people on Monday, including a police officer, and a suspect was in custody, authorities said.
Boulder Police Cmdr. Kerry Yamaguchi told a press conference that the suspect was under treatment, but did not give more details on the shooting or the number of people killed. Officers escorted a shirtless man with blood streaming down his leg out of the handcuffed store, but authorities did not say if that was the suspect.
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said authorities knew how many people had been killed and suggested not to release the number because they needed to notify the families of the victims.
Yamaguchi said police are still investigating and have no details on the motive.
A man who had just left the Boulder store, Dean Schiller, told The Associated Press he heard gunshots and saw three people lying face down, two in the parking lot and one near the door. He said he “couldn’t tell if they were breathing”.
The video posted to YouTube showed one person on the floor inside the King Soopers store and two others outside on the floor, but the extent of their injuries was unclear. What looks like two shots is also heard at the start of the video.
One person was taken from the filming scene at Foothills Hospital in Boulder, said Rich Sheehan, spokesperson for Boulder Community Health, which operates the hospital. Sheehan said he couldn’t provide further details, but said “we have been advised that we will not be receiving any additional patients. ”
Vehicles and law enforcement officers gathered outside the store, including SWAT teams, and at least three helicopters landed on the rooftop of the city that is home to the University of Colorado and is located about 40 miles northwest of Denver.
Some windows at the front of the store were broken. At one point, authorities said over loudspeakers that the building was surrounded and that “you must surrender”. They said to come out with your hands up and unarmed.
Sarah Moonshadow told the Denver Post that two shots rang out right after she and her son, Nicolas Edwards, finished buying strawberries. She said she told her son to get off and then “we just ran”.
Once they got out she said they saw a body in the parking lot. Edwards said police were speeding into the parking lot and pulled over to the body.
“I knew there was nothing we could do for the guy,” he said. “We had to go.”
James Bentz told the Post he was in the meat section when he heard what he thought was a dud, then a series of pops.
“I was at the front of a stampede then,” he said.
Bentz said he jumped off a loading dock to escape and younger people were helping older people get out.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis tweeted a statement that “his heart breaks as we watch this indescribable event unfold in our community of Boulder.” He called it a “very active situation” and said the state “is making available to help the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department secure the store. ”
Boulder police had told people to take shelter in place amid a report of an “armed and dangerous individual” about 3 miles from the grocery store, but then lifted her and vehicles from the store. police were seen leaving the residential neighborhood near downtown and the University of Colorado. They had said they were investigating whether this report was linked to the supermarket shooting, but said in the evening press conference that there was no report.
The FBI said it was assisting with the investigation at the request of Boulder Police.
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