BOULDER, Colo. — Two women who each lost a parent in the Boulder King Soopers shooting leaned on each other as they got through the killer’s trial, verdict, and sentencing.
Erika Mahoney lost her father, Kevin Mahoney, on March 22, 2021. Kevin was the second person shot that day; he died in the store’s parking lot.
Less than a minute later, Olivia Mackenzie’s mother, Lynn Murray, died inside the store – where she was working to fulfill an order for the grocery shopping app Instacart.
“We just immediately bonded,” Mahoney said as the two of them sat on a bench outside the Boulder County court building. “We have a beautiful friendship that I know is going to continue past this trial. It's one of the beautiful things to come out of this, our friendship.”
“We both lost our parents,” Mackenzie said. “And, you know, we're both young and so we met, we were kind of sharing from that perspective.”
It’s a relationship built on neither having to explain to the other what she’s been through.
“A lot of people really get uncomfortable talking about this,” Mackenzie said. “I usually don't talk about it in my daily life.”
As they spoke Monday evening, the courthouse was darkened and empty. Hours earlier, a jury had convicted the shooter of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 45 other criminal charges.
And a judge had sentenced him to the maximum – 10 separate life sentences with no possibility of parole, plus 1,334 years.
The first meeting between Mahoney and Mackenzie occurred about a year after the shooting. They met at a coffee shop, and at one point they looked out and realized they were across the street from a cemetery. As they told the story, taking turns with details, they joked that it was a “fitting setting” for them to begin getting to know each other.
They’ve become close even though they live in different states.
During the shooter’s trial – which stretched over 12 days of testimony and more than 60 witnesses – they traded messages of support, frustration, and emotion.
“That communication throughout this trial has been essential, I think, in just surviving it,” Mahoney said.
On Monday, the verdict and sentencing brought them together in person.
“I know that my dad is so happy that we found each other,” Mahoney said.
“Losing them in this way,” Mackenzie said, turning to Mahoney, “and us both wanting to protect them and just – having that space in our hearts to just know that I'll just always encourage you to just shine your light and be what I think what our parents would want for us.”