A heroic cop, killed by a mass shooter in Boulder, Colorado on Monday was identified as veteran Officer Eric Talley, who had served in the department since 2010.
"And I have to tell you, the heroic action of this officer when he responded to the scene," Police Chief Maris Herold, at times choking up, said at the briefing. "Officer Talley responded to the scene, was the first on the scene, and he was fatally shot," the chief said.
Rest In peace Officer Eric Talley. Your service will never be forgotten #BoulderShooting pic.twitter.com/FVximvhS2E
— Boulder Police Dept. (@boulderpolice) March 23, 2021
A memorial police procession was held in honour of Talley.
The officer's father, Homer Talley, told Denver7 that his son was a dad to seven children; his youngest was seven years old.
"He took his job as a police officer very seriously," the father told the news station. "He loved his kids and his family more than anything... He didn't want to put his family through something like this and he believed in Jesus Christ."
The King Soopers incident became the third-deadliest shooting to have rocked Colorado in over 20 years (after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the 2012 Aurora shooting), and the second-biggest mass shooting of the month in the US, following just days after the deadly attack in Atlanta and a suburb, that left eight people dead.
