It was a sunny Monday and Boulder was melting off after digging out from a week of snowstorms. Police radio traffic had been mostly quiet through the morning and into early afternoon, aside from the intermittent scratch of check-ins and routine responses, standard fare for this outdoorsy college city of about 100,000 in the Rocky Mountain foothills.
That changed just before 2:30 p.m., when the first of what would be an explosion of frantic 911 calls began pouring in. Eyewitnesses reported that a man was shooting at shoppers and store personnel, inside and in the parking lot of a busy south Boulder grocery store.
Moments later, as a killer stalked the aisles and people scrambled across blood-slickened floors looking for escape or a place to hide, the order went out to all units:
“Hold all radio traffic, everybody. Just go.”
Thus it began, another deadly rampage and sorrowful chapter in Colorado's history of mass shootings.
By the time it ended — with a suspect in custody, less than an hour after it had begun — ten people were dead, including 51-year-old Boulder police officer Eric Talley, who had been among the first officers on scene.
Hundreds of shoppers and workers had been on the property when Monday’s shooting spree began.
Most of the shooting took place in the first 15 minutes after the suspect, identified by police as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, entered the front of the store, said 20-year-old Logan Smith, a barista at the Starbucks inside King Soopers.
It was an hour of unbridled terror, when the shooter — who was “jerky” and “constantly swiveling his head” — came within 13 feet of where Smith and a coworker were hiding.
Smith, who is saving up to buy a car and needed the extra hours, had arrived for his shift two hours early that day, at 10 a.m., to find the coffee shop’s espresso machine down and a repairman working on it. Smith struck up a conversation with the repairman, "a great man," Smith would say later.
The repairman was 23-year-old Neven Stanisic, among the first murdered Monday, at his company van in the parking lot. The vehicle was one of two that had shattered windows, where victims had been gunned down.
That morning, Smith also talked with his coworker Denny Stong about a Civil War reenactment Stong was to participate in on Sunday.
It was a mock battle the 20-year-old Stong would not live to see.
"I did the dumb thing of running out and checking if there was actually gunfire," Smith said. "There was gunfire. I saw the gunman shoot a customer in the back, who was running into the store for safety."
Stong and Smith looked at each other and told each other to run. Smith called 911 and Stong took off running from the coffee kiosk, toward the gunman.
Smith would not see him again.
____
Moments after the first emergency dispatch went out, a female Boulder police officer radioed in to say she was in the area.
“Give me the (suspect's) description again.”
“White male, wearing a black vest. He has a beard and dark hair.”
“Alright … looking.”
Less than a minute later: “Party down in front of the store. Does not match the shooter’s description ….”
Then: “Possibly two parties down.”
By that time, multiple 911 calls were coming from inside the store, from people who had barricaded themselves in offices and back rooms.
The unidentified female officer reported that she and fellow officers were making a move.
“Talley … and myself are going in.”
Within minutes of the first shots being fired, Craig McSavaney picked up a call from his daughter.
All he heard were hysterical screams — no words, just his daughter's voice wailing in terror.
After 15 or 30 seconds, he finally understood her: "I can't get through. There's people with guns. There's people with guns everywhere. They're all running towards King Soopers. I don't know what to do. There's gunshots. There's gunshots."
McSavaney's daughter had just pulled into the parking lot when the fusillade erupted, leaving her trapped and unable to throw her car in reverse. She hid there, listening to the gunfire until an officer in tactical gear noticed her and helped her out of her car and across the street to safety.
Logan Smith saw store manager Rikki Olds fall as the gunman opened fire. Smith said he pushed a 69-year-old coworker into a corner of the Starbucks kiosk and covered her with trash can lids, and placed a lid over his own chest.
“My heart was covered,” he would recall.
“I’ve got a party down just inside the doors … shooter IS inside. He just shot at us twice.”
“Where are my officers that are inside?”
“Officer down inside the building.”
A request for mutual aid was issued, drawing every available emergency unit to a staging area set up to treat expected victims.
“We’re sending them all.”
Nine American Medical Response ambulances from the Boulder office were stationed in the King Soopers parking lot for seven hours, said Chris Williams, regional director for Colorado and Wyoming.
Another eight ambulances were on standby in Denver.
Hospitals along Colorado’s Front Range were primed to receive the wounded, Williams said.
“With the scale and size of an event like that — with the potential for mass casualties — they’re ready to go,” he said.
Ultimately, tragically, they would not be needed. The patients never came.
The 10 victims died on the scene. Only the suspect was injured, presumably by police, and transported by ambulance to a hospital.
Workers didn’t know until the end, though, that no patients would need medical assistance, Williams said.
“Those events are so fast-moving, and you have to wait until the entirety to grasp what happened,” he said. “We train with police and fire and hospitals for stuff like this, but it’s a different scenario when you’re in it.”
____
“The local shots being fired at us …"
“I just … another civilian report of a possible three gunmen. I don’t have locations yet.
"I got it. We’re taking multiple rounds.”
“We have rounds, both directions. So far, potentially one gunman armed with a long gun, potentially near the back of the store if we can get some officers to set up at the rear.”
And, around 2:45, as officers formulated a plan to breach the store with an armored vehicle and SWAT teams.
“We need shields. Get them up here. We’ve got to do an officer rescue.”
