President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass new gun-control measures on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after 10 people were shot to death in a Boulder, Colorado, market.
“I don’t need to wait another minute — or another hour — to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future,” Biden said. “We should also ban assault weapons in the process.
“This should not be a partisan issue,” Biden said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration is not ruling out executive actions to enact gun control.
On Tuesday morning, police said Ahmad Alissa, 21, of Arvada, Colorado, had been arrested and charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder. In an affidavit released Tuesday afternoon, police said Alissa bought the assault rifle six days before the shooting. The affidavit also said King Sooper employees told investigators Alissa shot an elderly man multiple times outside the store before going inside.
Biden said he accomplished an assault weapons ban “as a senator. It brought down mass shootings, we can do it again. We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again.”
Former President Barack Obama was among thousands to take to social media on Tuesday, calling for an end to the senseless mass shootings that have plagued the nation for decades.
“Our hearts break for all who were hurt or killed in Colorado,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on social media. “Walking the aisles of a grocery store, the fear of gun violence should be the last thing on your mind. We simply cannot accept this as part of American life.”
“It’s absolutely baffling,” said Vice President Kamala Harris, who is on a road tour touting President Joe Biden’s COVID relief package. “It’s 10 people going about their day, living their lives, not bothering anybody. A police officer who is performing his duties, and with great courage and heroism.”
Hundreds of police officers from throughout the Denver metropolitan area responded to the Monday afternoon attack, converging on a King Soopers supermarket in a busy shopping plaza in southern Boulder. SWAT officers carrying ballistic shields slowly approached the store as others quickly escorted frightened people from the building, some of its windows shattered. Customers and employees fled through a back loading dock to safety. Others took refuge in nearby shops.
Officers had escorted a shirtless man in handcuffs, blood running down his leg, from the store during the siege. Authorities would not say if he was the suspect. Foothills Hospital in Boulder was treating one person from the shooting scene but refused further comment, said Rich Sheehan, spokesman for Boulder Community Health, which operates the hospital.
“This is a tragedy and a nightmare for Boulder County,” Dougherty said. “These were people going about their day, doing their shopping. I promise the victims and the people of the state of Colorado that we will secure justice.”
Herold 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.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
“He was by all accounts one of the outstanding officers of the Boulder Police Department, and his life was cut too short,” Dougherty said.
Dozens of police and emergency vehicles, their lights flashing, escorted an ambulance carrying the officer from the shooting scene after nightfall. Some residents stood along the route, their arms raised in salute.
Dougherty said it was too early to speculate on a motive and that the investigation involving local, state and federal agencies would take days.
The attack in Boulder, about 25 miles northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado, stunned a state that has seen several mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting.
Monday’s midafternoon attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., following the March 16 shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area spa businesses, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
It follows a lull in mass killings during the pandemic in 2020, which had the smallest number of such attacks in more than a decade, according to the database, which tracks mass killings defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter.
Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat whose district includes Boulder, said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning” that “enough is enough” when it comes to political impasses that keep gun control laws from passing Congress.
“The time for inaction is over. It does not have to be this way. There are commonsense gun legislation reform proposals that have been debated in Congress for far too long,” Neguse said. “The gun lobby and so many others have stopped the ability to make meaningful reforms in the past, but that’s no excuse. I think the American people are tired of excuses. So it’s time for us to roll up our sleeves in the Congress and muster the political will power to actually get something done.”
Dean Schiller said he had just left the supermarket when he heard gunshots. He saw three people lying facedown — one in a doorway and two in the parking lot. Schiller said he couldn’t tell if they were breathing.
Sarah Moonshadow and her son, Nicolas Edwards, had just bought strawberries when they heard gunfire. Moonshadow told The Denver Post they ducked and “just ran.” Outside, Edwards said, arriving police pulled up next to a body in the parking lot.
“I knew we couldn’t do anything for the guy,” he said. “We had to go.”
Video posted on YouTube showed one person on the floor inside the store and two more outside on the ground. What sounds like two gunshots are heard at the beginning of the video.
Investigators had just started sorting through the crime scene and conducting witness interviews, Dougherty said. Matthew Kirsch, the acting U.S. attorney for Colorado, pledged that “the full weight of federal law enforcement” will support the investigation. He said investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the crime scene, along with FBI agents.
The King Soopers chain said in a statement that it was offering prayers and support “to our associates, customers, and the first responders who so bravely responded to this tragic situation.”
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