Lives ‘cut too short’: Beloved police officer among 10 victims of Boulder, Colorado, shooting

BOULDER, Colorado – The 10 people gunned down at a supermarket in an afternoon of terror Monday ranged in age from 20 to 65 and include a police officer who raced to the scene after a 911 call. 

Authorities identified nine additional victims on Tuesday after identifying Boulder Officer Eric Talley, 51, the day before.

According to Boulder police, their names are:

  • Denny Stong, 20
  • Neven Stanisic, 23
  • Rikki Olds, 25
  • Talona Bartkowiak, 49
  • Suzanne Fountain, 59
  • Teri Leiker, 51
  • Eric Talley, 51
  • Kevin Mahoney, 61
  • Lynn Murray, 62
  • Jody Waters, 65

Talley was the first office to arrive at the King Soopers store and was killed during a shootout with the gunman, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said.

Talley had been with Boulder police since 2010, Herold said.

“He was by all accounts one of the outstanding officers of the Boulder Police Department, and his life was cut too short,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.

Eric Talley has been identified as the first officer on the scene of a mass shooting at a Colorado supermarket. He was one of 10 people killed. (Photo: AP)

It “didn’t surprise me he was the first one there,” Homer Talley, the officer’s father, told KUSA-TV.

Talley had seven children of his own, ranging in ages from 20 to 7, his father told KUSA-TV. 

“He had a great sense of humor, he was a prankster,” Homer Talley said. “He loved his family more than anything.”

Talley was one of three officers who helped save a group of ducklings that had been trapped in a drainage ditch, according to a 2013 article from the Boulder Daily Camera, 

Talley “waded into the calf-deep water to try and round up the ducks himself,” the article said. “He was drenched after this,” Boulder police Sgt. Jack Walker told the newspaper. “They would go into these little pipes and he would have to try and fish them out.”

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