Former Special Olympics Athlete, Local Business Owner Among Those Killed in Boulder Shooting

Ten people were killed in the shooting at King Soopers on Monday. They were identified by police at a Tuesday press conference.

Ten families are grieving their loved ones who were killed when a gunman opened fire at a Colorado grocery store on Monday. The attack at King Soopers supermarket in Boulder was the seventh mass shooting in the U.S. in the past seven days.

In a Tuesday press conference, police identified the victims, included among them a responding police officer and a store employee.

Here’s what we know about the victims.

Tralona Bartkowiak, 49

Bartkowiak was the owner of a local clothing store who planned to get married soon, KUSA reported.

“Lonna had probably the brightest light I have ever met in a human being," Stacy Dixon, a friend of Bartkowiak, told the news station.

She was at King Soopers filling a prescription at the store’s pharmacy.

Suzanne Fountain, 59

Fountain was a Boulder financial counselor who helped people enroll in Medicare, the Denver Post reported. Fountain, whose friends and colleagues described as “warm” and “genuine,” also performed in local theater productions.

 

She is survived by a son.

Teri Leiker, 51

Leiker was a longtime King Soopers employee and a huge supporter of the Colorado University Marching Band, the Denver Post reported.

 

She was also a former athlete in the Colorado Special Olympics, the organization wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.

“Teri brought life and light to all she did,” the statement said.

Lynn Murray, 62

Murray was at the store that day filling an order for the online grocery store delivery service Instacart.

 

A former photo editor who worked for magazines including Glamour, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan, Murray started gig work after retiring, her daughter Mackenzie told the News-Herald.
 
“She really was the biggest light in everybody’s life,” Mackenzie told the newspaper. “She would do anything for anybody. You can’t say anything bad about her.”

Neven Stanisic, 23

Stanisic, a repairman, had just finished fixing the coffee machine at the Starbucks inside the store.

 

He was the son of Serbian refugees, the Colorado Sun reported, citing the family’s church.

Rev. Radovan Petrovic of Saint John the Baptist Serbian Orthodox Church told the Sun that Stanisic was shot in the driver’s seat of his car. “He was a really good boy, good kid,” Petrovic said. “Very loving and well-mannered, and a hard-working boy.”

Denny Stong, 20

“He was that person who was friends with everybody,” a friend told KUSA of the youngest victim of the shooting.

 

He was working at King Soopers when the shooting occured.

Jody Waters, 65

Waters worked in the local fashion industry and dreamt of creating her own boutique, KUSA reported.

 

“It is with a heavy heart that Scott and I share the news that our friend and colleague, Jody Waters, was shot and killed at the King Super's mass shooting yesterday in Boulder,” a local leather accessories store wrote on Instagram.

“Jody was a beautiful soul with a warm and loving heart, a mother and grandmother, and she will be dearly missed by all who were fortunate enough to know her. We are so sad.”

Eric Talley, 51

Talley, a Boulder police officer, was the first officer to arrive at the scene. "Didn't surprise me he was the first one there," Talley's father, Homer Talley, told KUSA of his son.

Gov. Jared Polis said Tuesday the fallen officer "was heroically trying to save others."

Talley was the father of seven children, ranging in age from 5 to 18, police said.

"Officer Eric Talley is my big brother. He died today in the Boulder shooting. My heart is broken. I cannot explain how beautiful he was and what a devastating loss this is to so many. Fly high my sweet brother. You always wanted to be a pilot (damn color blindness). Soar,” his sister Kirstin wrote on Twitter.

“When he pinned on that badge yesterday morning, he didn't know what the day would bring,” President Joe Biden said of the fallen officer.

Emergency vehicles with their lights flashing formed a convoy as Talley’s body was taken from the scene to a funeral home. Fellow officers and first responders saluted as it passed.

Rikki Olds, 25

Olds was a manager at King Soopers. Her aunt calls her a “beautiful young angel” whose life was cut short “at the hands of a deranged monster.”

“May his rotten a** fry and burn in hell … if I don’t kill him first,” she wrote on Facebook.

Olds had been working at King Soopers since 2016, when she started as a deli clerk at one of the chain’s locations in Louisville, the Denver Post reported.

Kevin Mahoney, 61

Mahoney was going to have a new grandchild, his daughter Erika Maloney, news director of KAZU Public Radio, wrote on Twitter.

“I am heartbroken to announce that my Dad, my hero, Kevin Mahoney, was killed in the King Soopers shooting in my hometown of Boulder, CO. My dad represents all things Love. I'm so thankful he could walk me down the aisle last summer,” Erika wrote, alongside a sweet photo of her and her dad. 

 

 

"I love you forever Dad. You are always with me.”

The other victims were identified as Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Lynn Murray, 62; Neven Stanisic, 23; Denny Stong, 20, and Jody Waters, 65.

This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information about the victims becomes available.

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