BOULDER, Colo — The Boulder Police Department (BPD) has released the names of the 10 people who lost their lives in the shooting at a King Soopers Monday.
Victims were between 20 and 65 years old. One of them was a front end manager at the store where the shooting happened, another was very involved in the local theater community, and another was one of the first to run inside the supermarket while everyone else ran out.
Vigils were held on the Pearl Street Mall, at Fairview High School and other places throughout Boulder to honor the victims, survivors their families and the community on Wednesday and Thursday.
> 9NEWS has a team working to tell the stories of these victims. If there are memories you would like to share, please email newstips@9news.com.
Here the names of the victims and what their friends and families have told us about them so far.
Rikki Olds, 25
Rikki Olds was a front-end manager at the King Soopers off Table Mesa Drive where the shooting occurred. Her uncle Bob Olds remembered her as loving, hardworking, independent and self-driven.
“She hadn’t got to live life, 25 is young,” Bob Olds said. “She didn’t get to experience motherhood, marriage, any of those things. I mean, it was taken from her, and I keep going back to ‘why?’ ”
Bob Olds remembers his niece as strong and independent and said she changed her hair color each week.
“Free will, independent, lived life on [her] terms,” Bob Olds said.
Bob Olds provided a statement from the family that says in part: "On behalf of the Olds family, we want to thank the community and Rikki’s friends and co-workers for the outpouring of support for our family. Today we are mourning the loss of our granddaughter, daughter, sister, niece, cousin, friend and colleague. Rikki Olds was truly one of a kind. She didn’t follow trends—she made them."
Suzanne Fountain, 59
Suzanne Fountain is remembered by Boulder's theater community as an incredible actress.
In a Facebook post, Brian Miller wrote that he got to know Suzanne while working on “Wit”, a play performed at the Nomad Theatre in Boulder in May 1982.
Tom Rowan, who now lives in New York, found out about Suzanne’s death over a Denver Theatre Facebook group.
“I was scrolling through the names, and didn’t think I’d come across someone I knew,” Rowan said. “ I was shocked.”
Rowan attended Boulder High School and was in a play with Suzanne. They starred in Winnie-the-Pooh at the Arvada Center in 1987.
“I was Rabbit, she was Piglet, and was adorable in it. She was a great colleague,” Rowan said.
Fountain also performed in Denver with the Denver Center Theatre Company for two seasons in the early 90s. The photo above shows Fountain with Jamie Horton during the 1990/91 production of Back to the Blanket.
Eric Talley, 51
Eric Talley was the first officer at the scene of the shooting. He's remembered for his commitment to public service.
"He loved this community," Boulder Police Chief Marris Herold said. "He’s everything policing needs, he cared about this community, Boulder Police, his family. He was willing to die to protect others, and that gets lost in translation."
Talley was the father of seven child, the oldest of whom is age 20. The youngest is 7.
> Video above: Boulder Chief talks about Officer Eric Talley's bravery and honors his loss.
Kevin Mahoney, 61
Ellen Mahoney says her husband of 35 years, Kevin Mahoney, loved people and hated litter. He adored nature and his family, preferably together on one of their outdoor adventures.
And while his family laughs about how he was a workaholic, they say family always came first.
Kevin was best friends with his son, Drew, and his daughter Erika said he was a great "girl dad." One of Ellen's favorite things about her husband was his tendency to break into song.
Kevin walked Erika down the aisle in a backyard wedding ceremony last year. He suggested waiting out the pandemic for a dream wedding, but she insisted a small celebration is all they needed. She's grateful for that decision now, because it meant she had the chance to be walked down the aisle by her dad.
Kevin knew he was going to be a grandfather this summer, and he was so excited about it.
Now, after his death, his family hopes people honor his memory by living as he did: a man known for his kindness.
Denny Stong, 20
Denny Stong, 20, graduated from Fairview High School in Boulder in 2019, according to a post on the school's website.
“He was a little bit older than me, but we had several classes together," said Isabella Rose, who graduated from the school last year. "He was that person who was friends with everybody, but he would always make a point to say hi."
She described him as a positive person who "knew everyone."
“I was remembering he was always a person who was spreading a lot of positivity," she said. "When I realized that it was him, I was really devastated because I just feel like he did so much."
The Boulder Valley School District said it's offering support to students and families. More information can be found here.
RELATED: ‘I feel like everybody knew who he was:’ Friend remembers King Soopers shooting victim Denny Stong
Neven Stanisic, 23
Neven Stanisic was 23, and came to the U.S. with his family as a Serbian refugee from Bosnia.
Radovan Petrovic was Stanisic’s reverend at St. John the Baptist Serbian Orthodox Church, and said he has known him since he was six years old.
“Just as recently as four weeks ago I was visiting with Neven and his family on a regular Lenten visit, so this is even more shocking,” he said.
Petrovic said Stanisic’s parents came from the U.S. in the late 1990s, and were fleeing the war-torn country and trying to start a new life in the states.
“[They were] seeking new life, new beginnings, and you can just imagine them coming without anything, as many of the refugee stories begin,” he said. “… and then for this tragedy to happen to them is devastating.”
Stanisic is remembered as a “fine young man” who was a “really good, honest, hardworking person.”
Petrovic said he was a technician for a company that did maintenance work on coffee machines, and he was on the job in the King Soopers on Monday.
“What happened in Boulder … that is maybe another proof that we need more God in our lives, not less, but more,” Petrovic said. “It’s very difficult to find words, especially if you know the anguish and pain that they suffer in the moment.”
Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
Tralona Bartkowiak, 49, owned a small business along the Pearl Street Mall along with her sister. Now there is a growing memorial and tribute in her honor outside Umba.
"Giving and kind and uplifting and just really inspiring in how giving she was," said Stacy Dixon, a good friend and former roommate of Tralona. "When the community comes together to help carry it, it can be lighter. There is a sense of compassion."
Customers said they felt like family when they entered her small business.
"Every time I walked in it felt like family. Felt like a part of home," said Boulder resident Nicholas Pollio who last shopped at the store over the weekend. "It was relieving to come here and know she was so loved. Once you see there are other people feeling the same way and having the same emotional battle, all of a sudden you are fighting together."
Teri Leiker, 51
Teri Leiker was an employee at the King Soopers store, according to Allan Wooley, who said that he used to work with her at the store where the shooting occurred.
"Still in shock," he said. "Everybody loved her here at the store."
Wooley also said that he participated in Special Olympics with Leiker, who competed in track and field and in skiing.
"She was funny. Always going to remember her smile and her laugh. She used to laugh a lot," he said. "That’s what I’m going to miss about her. Her smile made everybody feel good inside every day when she was working.”
He said that Leiker did bagging and cart return duties at the store.
RELATED: King Soopers employee killed in shooting remembered for humor, Specials Olympics participation
Lynn Murray, 62
Lynn Murray was a retired photo editor, a wife of 26 years and a mother of two.
Her daughter, Olivia Mackenzie, calls her “the cool mom.”
“My mom really was the most beautiful person I ever met,” Olivia said. “She had no ego she was just like all heart all open heart all love and just wanted the best for everybody.”
Murray was born in Mentor, Ohio. She went to college in Athens, Georgia for a degree in photography. Her husband said she moved to New York City with $500 in her pocket.
Murray worked her way up in her field, at first working for a famous photographer in New York City, coordinating all the work in that studio. She would later go on to a career working at publications like Marie Claire and Conde Nast.
She met her husband John in 1991, the beginning of a 30-year love story. The couple had two children, Olivia and Pierce.
“She was the most hardworking, most selfless, most beautiful, most creative, and so fun loving,” John said.
Jody Waters, 65
Jody Waters worked in the fashion industry and had dreams of setting up her own boutique, according to her friend Scott Schaefer.
"We loved Jody. She was a beautiful soul. She was a warm person with a light in her eye," he said.
Schaefer, who owns Embrazio in Boulder, shared a photo he said was taken four or five years ago during a trade show event.
“Looking at that photo this morning reminded me what a positive spirit she was," he said. "She was always looking for ways to interact with people as the outgoing personality she was. She was a beautiful person.”
RELATED: What if we never named the shooters?
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