'Felt So Raw Inside': Friends, Neighbors Gather At Vigil To Remember Shooting Victims
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - About 200 people gathered a short distance from the King Soopers in Boulder Tuesday night, trying to console each other over the loss of 10 people in a shooting Monday. They gathered in a field behind St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church to share messages of support, the sharing of poetry, singing and some calling for an end to gun violence.
"It's important to be with your neighbors and show them that you care and not just that you're at home watching everything on TV, which is abstract and unreal," said Christine Moran. "I have felt so raw inside, that I simply don't know what to do with these feelings and emotions," said Rhonda
Peterson. She explained what they tried to do as, "To gather and bring a candle and show our grief has been one of the reasons why we in this community, Boulder, is such a special place."
People sang Amazing Grace and heard the poetry of May Angelou recited. They thought about the 10 lost in the shooting and lit candles.
Carli Granholm was one of the organizers.
"I know I need this. I need to see my neighbors' and friends' faces and we can't hug but, virtually hug," she explained. "It brings home the other towns that have experienced similar things but we really just want to focus on supporting each other tonight," said Granholm.
All day, people had been bringing mementos to the fence that now lines the front of the King Soopers store keeping people out while police continue to work on the crime scene. Hundreds of bouquets are there. So are crosses erected in memory of the victims. Debra Baros wrote a few words with a pen left for signing on the cross bearing the name of victim Teri Leiker. Leiker worked at the store and Baros remembered her kindness and smile.
"You don't think that something like this is going to happen that this was going to be the last time you're going to see their faces and hear their voices," she recalled about a recent visit to the store.
Four members of the Fritchell family from Westminster came to honor the heroism of Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley.
"Pay our respects," said Josh Fritchell. "Not only to the family members, but to the fallen officer who paid the ultimate sacrifice."
He and his wife Lyndsey brought their two sons, "They need to have respect for other people, for their community."
The 10 victims in the shooting at the King Soopers store in Boulder on Monday have been identified. They are: grocery worker Denny Stong, 20, Neven Stanisic, 23, grocery worker Rikki Olds, 25, Tralona Bartkowiak, 49, Suzanne Fountain, 59, grocery worker Teri Leiker, 51, Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, 51, Kevin Mahoney, 61, Lynn Murray, 62, and Jody Waters, 65.
