Connect with us

Uncategorized

Boulder shooting: Suspect identified

Published

on

Screen Shot 2021 03 23 at 8.34.23 AM

UPDATED

Ten people are dead, including one Boulder police officer, after a gunman opened fire Monday in a grocery store in Boulder, Co.

At a news conference Monday, authorities said the suspect who had been shot in an exchange of fire with police was taken into custody. On Tuesday, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold identified the suspect as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, of Arvada.

He is now charged with ten counts of first-degree murder and will be transported to the Boulder County jail. He is in stable condition.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis spoke Tuesday morning mourning the dead and offering condolences to the families and to the community.

“We will hold the evildoer responsible to the full extent of the law for his actions. We will always remember the victims of the King Soopers shooting,” he concluded.

The ten victims were identified and their names were read to the public. They ranged in age from 20 to 65. Here are their names:

  • Denny Stong, 20
  • Neven Stanisic, 23
  • Rikki Olds, 25
  • Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
  • Suzanne Fountain, 59
  • Teri Leiker, 51
  • Eric Talley, 51
  • Kevin Mahoney, 61
  • Lynn Murray, 62
  • Jody Waters, 65

Boulder County district attorney Michael Dougherty promised that justice would be served, but that it won’t come for over a year.

Herold said calls started coming into the station around 2:30 p.m., local time, about shots in the area and “a possible person with a patrol rifle.”

The mass shooting occurred at King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, which is about 25 miles northwest of Denver.

The officer who died was Eric Talley, 51. He joined the department in 2010. Officer Talley was the first to respond to the scene when reports of a gunman came in, the police said.

“He was, by all accounts, one of the outstanding officers at the Boulder Police Department and his life was cut far too short,” Dougherty said Monday.

Officer Talley had seven children and his youngest child is 7 years old, his father Homer Talley said Monday. “He loved his kids and his family more than anything,” he said.

The shooter’s motive hasn’t been disclosed.

Jennie Taer contributed to this report

Follow Annaliese Levy on Twitter @AnnalieseLevy

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Pope Francis calls for universal ban on ‘so-called surrogate motherhood’

Published

on

Screen Shot 2023 12 18 at 10.42.31 AM

Pope Francis called for a universal ban on surrogacy, likening the practice as an unborn child “turned into an object of trafficking.”

“I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs,” Francis said in a speech to the Holy See on Monday.

The “uterus for rent” process, as Francis has called it, was estimated to bring in $14 billion in the U.S. in 2022, and is projected to grow to a $129 billion market by 2032. National Review reports Individual surrogacies can cost anywhere from $60,000 to $200,000 plus in the U.S. Rising infertility rates, an increase in the number of fertility clinics, and “sedentary lifestyles” contribute to surrogacy’s recent popularity, according to Global Market Insights.

“A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” Francis continued. “Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”

Surrogacy is already banned in many European countries. In the United States, commercial surrogacy, or for-profit surrogacy, is legal in some states, and the practice has been used by celebrities who are very public with their decision to use surrogacy.

Altruistic surrogacy, the method by which a woman carries another person’s child for no official compensation, is legal in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, South Africa, Greece, and Iceland, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The speech was about threats to peace and human dignity. “A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” Francis continued. “Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”

Francis also listed Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, climate change, and increased weapons production as great threats to peace on Monday.

Continue Reading

Trending