Who was Eric Talley? The police officer killed in Boulder shooting

Mass shooting at a superstore in Boulder, Colorado, late on Monday left 10 people dead. Among the dead was a police
officer, who was one of the first officers to reach the spot. “Among those dead was heroic police officer Eric Talley, 51, who was the first to respond to the scene at a King Soopers supermarket,” said police chief Maris Herold.

Father to seven children, Talley had joined the force at the age of 40. According to Talley’s father, Homer Talley, the 51-year-old had admiration for his job and love for his family, and was trying to learn to operate drones when he landed in the occupation.

“He took his job as a police officer very seriously. He had seven children. The youngest is 7 year-old. He loved his kids and his family more than anything. He joined the police force when he was 40 years old. He was looking for a job to keep himself off of the front lines and was learning to be a drone operator. He didn’t want to put his family through something like this and he believed in Jesus Christ,” Homer Talley was quoted as saying by TV9.

Also read: 2 sisters hide in coat closet for an hour, survive Boulder shooting

A motorcade of vehicles followed the ambulance carrying Talley’s body when it left the King Soopers outlet in Boulder’s Table Mesa Road on Tuesday, as per a report by Denver7 News, affiliated to ABC.

Also read: ‘Multiple people’ killed in Boulder store shooting, police say

Talley is the sixth officer in Boulder to be
killed in the line of duty.

“Our hearts are heavy hearing the sad news of the fallen
Boulder officer and we offer our sincere condolences to the @boulderpolice and
the families of all the victims of today’s tragic event”, Jefferson County Sheriff’s
Office tweeted out on Tuesday.