10 people have been killed after a gunman opened fire in a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado in the second mass shooting in the past week in the US. The victims consist of 3 supermarket employees, 6 shoppers, and a 51-year-old Denver police officer who was the first to respond to the attack. The 21-year-old suspect is accused of driving 20 miles from his home in Arvada with a Ruger AR-556 pistol and opening fire in the supermarket. As of now, the suspect has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder after being released from a local hospital, where has was treated for a gunshot wound to the leg. However, the Boulder County District Attorney said that he will be filing more attempted murder charges against the shooter since the shooter also fired on police when they arrived on the scene. According to the DA, the officers “charged into the store and immediately faced a very significant amount of gunfire from the shooter, who at first, they were unable to locate, and they put their lives at risk.”

In court on Thursday, a judge approved defense lawyer Kathryn Herold’s request that the next hearing is delayed in order for the man to be given a mental health assessment. That means there will not be another hearing in this case for at least two months. According to those close to the suspect, he was paranoid, antisocial, and likely had mental health problems, which may have been a factor in the attack. The suspect’s brother said that the suspect was bullied in high school for being Muslim, and that this led him to be increasingly paranoid as the years went on. However, investigators have yet to determine his actual motive, with this being one of many different things that we have learned about the shooter over the past week that could have had an impact on his decision to attack the supermarket. Investigators have also said that they have not determined whether the event was a terrorist attack, although they expect more information to be released to the public in coming days.

In the past week, there have been memorials for the 10 victims, including one for Officer Eric Talley, who the Boulder Police Department says was one of the first officers on the scene and rushed into without a second thought. A video taken by a bystander shows Talley and two officers rushing onto the scene and parking with no other police cars in sight, then immediately stepping out of their vehicles, grabbing their patrol rifles, and rushing into the store. According to the Boulder Police Department, immediately after entering the store, all three officers faced heavy gunfire, with Officer Talley being struck twice in the head, killing him instantly. The procession of Talley’s body was attended by hundreds of first responders from Boulder and surrounding areas. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden described Talley and an “American hero,” saying that when Talley “pinned on that badge yesterday morning, he didn’t know what the day would bring. He thought he’d be coming home to his family and his seven children. When the moment to act came, Officer Talley did not hesitate in his duty, making the ultimate sacrifice in his effort to save lives. That’s the definition of an American hero.”

This shooting has also led some lawmakers to call for stricter gun control, especially considering that this shooting was just one of two with 8+ fatalities to take place over the course of the last week, with a shooter in Atlanta also killing 8 at several locations across the city. Senator Diane Feinstein (R-CA), said that she is going to introduce red-flag legislation to the Senate in the very near future, which would allow family member or law enforcement officers to seek an “extreme risk protection order” if they believe someone may misuse guns in their position, even if they own the gun legally. However, not all lawmakers agreed with this legislation, with Representative Lauren Bobert (R-CO) saying that mass shooters “don’t follow the law.” One thing to note though is that many experts say that these laws will likely be at least somewhat effective against stopping gun deaths, even if they don’t work to the degree that Feinstein says that they will. While the is currently no research showing that red flag laws will decrease mass shootings, research has shown that red flag laws can reduce gun suicides by taking guns away from suicidal people.