Hour of horror. How the Boulder shooting rampage unfolded

“I turned and kept up with her, and we all ran down the aisle toward the back of the store together,” where they huddled with employees. “I saw a lot of very wide eyes. I’m sure my eyes were just as terrified as everybody else’s.”

Calls poured in to 911 dispatchers, the first around 2:30 p.m. local time, according to police. By 3:28 p.m., it was all over.

And what had been a regular day of errands and chores in this university town situated beside the Rocky Mountains northwest of Denver was shattered forever. While some shoppers and employees managed to hide in terror, 10 people were shot dead by a lone assailant.

Eventually, she said, she heard the gunman give up, seemingly right outside her door, with him telling officers: “I surrender. I’m naked.”

The suspect had removed all of his clothing down to his shorts and was bleeding from a “through and through” gunshot wound in his leg when he turned himself into the police, the affidavit reads.

Though the suspect is in custody, Colorado residents and officials are left to grapple with the violence that has impacted the community in which they felt so safe.

“This is just where everybody goes to pick up groceries,” Gov. Jared Polis said. “Never, ever does it cross your mind that that trip to the grocery store could be your last moments on earth.”

Questions that remain

“I promise that all of us here will work tirelessly … to make sure that the killer is held absolutely and fully accountable for what he did,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said Tuesday at a news conference.

A Ruger AR-556 pistol, modified with an arm brace, was used in the shooting, a senior law enforcement source told CNN on condition of anonymity. The gunman was also carrying a 9 mm handgun, according to the source.

Alissa had bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol on March 16, less than a week before the shooting, police wrote in the affidavit, citing law enforcement databases.

Among the items that Alissa abandoned at the store when he surrendered were two guns and a green tactical vest, the affidavit reads.

The suspect did not answer officers’ questions, but he did ask to speak to his mother, according to the affidavit.

Father, manager and nonprofit worker among the lost

Witnesses told dispatchers they saw the assailant shoot at responding police officers, the affidavit reads. Officers exchanged gunfire with Alissa at the store, police Chief Maris Herold said.

Talley, a father of seven children ages 5 to 18, once had a different profession and “didn’t have to go into policing, but he felt a higher calling,” Herold said Tuesday.

“He cared about this community … and he was willing to die to protect others,” she said.

She was a “strong, independent young woman” who was raised by her grandparents, he said. “She was so energetic and charismatic and she was a shining light in this dark world.”

Denny Stong, another King Soopers worker, was a “wise young man,” according to coworker Logan Ezra Smith.

“Me and him were both big Second Amendment supporters and would go shooting on the weekends,” Smith said. “I will miss his smile and his laugh … as well as his honesty. He put you in your place.”

“She wanted to get to know people as who they were, like why they were in town, what their interests are. And she would rather make friends than sell (stuff),” Molina said.

Forster said she met Fountain during a community theater production in the late 1980s and later hired her to work at her nonprofit organization, where Fountain worked for 17 years.

“She would be the first person that people would see when they walked in the door of the nonprofit building that we operate, and she just would take care of everybody. She was calm and reassuring when things were stressful,” Forster said.