Colorado Grocery Store Shooting: What Happened and What You Can Do

Date Published: March 23, 2021 at 2:30 p.m. ET

Table of Contents

• What Happened Monday In Colorado?
• What Else Should I Know?
• What Can I Do?

What Happened Monday In Colorado?

As the Associated Press reports: “A shooting at a crowded Colorado supermarket that killed 10 people, including the first police officer to arrive, sent terrorized shoppers and workers scrambling for safety and stunned a state and a nation that has grieved several mass killings.”

• The victims, who range from 20 to 65 years old, have been identified.
• The Boulder Police Chief “identified the slain officer as Eric Talley, 51, who had been with Boulder police since 2010. He was the first to arrive after responding to a call about shots fired and someone carrying a rifle, she said.”
• Reuters reports that “the shooting at a King Soopers outlet in Boulder, about 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Denver, drew hundreds of responding officers and sent shoppers and employees fleeing for cover.”
• The suspect, who has been identified as a 21-year-old man, is in custody. No word yet on a motive.

Follow The New York Times for ongoing updates.

If you’re seeking mental health support, The Crisis Text Line offers 24/7 support via text for those in crisis (text DS to 741741). Plus, this mental health guide has tips for coping with the shock, grief, and anger following a mass shooting.

What Else Should I Know?

• CNN reports that the shooter used an AR-15 assault rifle. A judge recently blocked Boulder from enforcing its assault-weapon ban, which the National Rifle Association (NRA) reportedly bragged about. AR-15 were used in the mass shootings in Parkland, Aurora, San Bernardino, Sandy Hook, Tree of Life Synagogue, and in over ¼ of the last 80 mass shootings in the US,
• Senators called gun violence a “public health crisis” and met Tuesday to debate action steps.
• The Colorado shooting is the seventh mass shooting in the last seven days in the US, including a string of shootings at Atlanta spas, which left eight dead (including six women of Asian descent). (CNN defines a mass shooting as: a shooting incident which results in four or more casualties (dead or wounded) excluding the shooter(s).)
• As the AP reports, these shootings follow “a lull in mass killings during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which had the smallest number of such attacks in eight years.”
• However, The New York Times reports that other types of gun violence “increased significantly last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There were more than 600 shootings in which four or more people were shot by one person compared with 417 in 2019. Many of those shootings involved gang violence, fights and domestic incidents, where the perpetrator knew the victims.”
• Research suggests that “widespread unemployment, financial stress, a rise in drug and alcohol addiction, and a lack of access to community resources caused by the pandemic” contributed to the rise in gun violence in 2020.

“This is not about left or right; this is about acting to prevent any other parent from knowing the feeling of looking at a permanently empty bedroom. This is about kids living to see graduation. Politicians are letting gun violence steal the future of our country every day.”

• Parkland survivor and gun violence prevention activist David Hogg

What Can I Do?

1. Practice self-care and support others’ mental health. Text DS to 741-741 to connect via text to a trained counselor through Crisis Text Line. Read this guide for how to cope in the wake of a mass shooting.
2. Support those impacted. Encourage others to donate to the Colorado Healing Fund, which supports victims, their families, and the greater community.
3. Demand legislation to prevent gun violence. Tell Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons. Tell your senator to take action on background checks. Text CHECKS to 644-33 to message Congress from your phone. You can also tweet your rep.