Police calls have revealed the harrowing moment the Colorado shootings began and officers arrived at the scene...
With them instructed to take "head-shots only."
Keep scrolling to listen to the chilling audio for yourself...
Of course, people have been left utterly heartbroken over the news of yet another mass shooting in our country.
We need gun control in this country. Or this will continue to happen. Thoughts and prayers and putting the gunman in jail is not enough.
— awanderingsilvia (@wanderingsilvia) March 23, 2021
This is heart breaking 💔 How many more people are going to have to die before this country pass gun control laws? 😭😭😭😭
— Jazzyred *GA Peach via DE* (@Jazzyre99350684) March 23, 2021
I am in Colorado. I experienced Columbine while I was in high school just next to it. Stop the damn prayers! Stop acting worse than children. Law makers do your damn jobs and PASS LAW. Our Founding Father's wanted protection against what tRump became. 1/
— D &B's Aunt, #BLM, #ConsequencesforRioters (@DandBrooklynn) March 23, 2021
Just heartbreaking to watch the Chief in this Press Conference 💔💙
— Pam (@Pam2189) March 23, 2021
Big tears here 😢.
Our prayers are with ALL of you & EVERYONE affected by this tragedy.🙏🇺🇸
Colorado has had mass shootings in a high school, a movie theatre, and now a supermarket. A solution is needed, period.
— Mad Cow.... (@craydaysinusa) March 23, 2021
You know how we honor the dead? By STOPPING this insanity. We are a country in crisis. No other country suffers this because they're smart enough to actually prevent it. We need radical change now.
— AhBrightWings (@AhBrightWings) March 23, 2021
This is CRAZY..ugh! My heart goes out to all involved..just horrible 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
— THA ORIGINAL GATA™ (@Thaoriginalgata) March 23, 2021
Thoughts and prayers AND common sense gun reform. No one needs a rifle at the grocery store. Glad you're safe, @PatientIntv and devastated for all the families who lost a loved one.
— Gabi Conecker (@ConeckerGabi) March 23, 2021
Police responded to reports of an "active shooter" at the King Soopers grocery store just before 3 pm local time on Monday in Boulder.
The gunman ended up shooting and killing 10 people.
The victims' families have been notified...
Fighting back tears, Boulder police Chief Maris Herold announced that 10 people, including an officer in her department, had been killed in a shooting at a Colorado market. https://t.co/bICXWVZl2X pic.twitter.com/oR0zMqqfj8
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) March 23, 2021
And the Boulder police chief, Maris Herold, announced the death toll at a news conference on Monday night, fighting back tears.
The gunman, who was minorly injured, was arrested and was recently charged for the murder of the 10 victims involved.
This vicious act comes just a week after 8 innocent people were shot dead - including 6 Asian women - at 3-day spas in and around Atlanta.
Many customers who were in the store witnessed the bloodshed...
And they have been speaking to numerous news outlets about the harrowing things they saw during that terrifying hour.
"We were at the checkout, and shots just started going off."
Sarah Moonshadow, forty-two, a customer and resident of Boulder, was in the store with her son, Nicholas, on Monday and recounted scenes of pandemonium as gunfire rang out.
"I said, 'Nicholas get down.' And Nicholas ducked. And we just started listening and there, just repetitive shots ... And I just said, 'Nicholas, run'," she told Reuters, as per The Guardian.
Another customer, Ryan Borowski, was inside the store when the shooting began.
He told CNN: "I saw terrified faces running towards me and that's when I turned and ran the other direction."
He said staff helped customers to exit from the back of the store but some people just froze on the spot: "We ran and I don't know why other people didn't and I am sorry that they froze and I just wish that this didn't happen – I wish I had an answer for why it did."
Alex Arellano, thirty-five, was working in the meat department at King Soopers when he heard gunshots and saw people running for the exit.
"I thought I was going to die," he told the New York Times, when he heard the shot getting closer, "I'm thinking of my parents, and I was freaking out."
He hid with 2 other men before escaping through a rear exit.
Yesterday, in the aftermath of the devastating incident, the perpetrator was identified...
Police Chief Maris Herold identified the suspect as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa of Arvada, a suburb of Denver about 20 miles from Boulder. Michael Dougherty, the district attorney in Boulder County, said he had “lived most of his life in the United States.” pic.twitter.com/Nh8ZVLV7jN
— LOUIS WOOLF (@torvale1953) March 23, 2021
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was shot in the leg as he carried out the attack with a rifle, and was in the hospital on Tuesday morning, prior to being sent to jail.
Alissa who has been described by his family as "mentally ill," was born in Syria and moved to the U.S. with his parents when he was 3.
If the Boulder supermarket shooter, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was mentally disturbed as described by his relatives, how was he able to obtain and openly carry a AR-15 Assault Weapon?#Boulder pic.twitter.com/LfPH9h2inA
— James Johnson (@jimmyhawk9) March 23, 2021
He lived around thirty miles from the grocery store he targeted on Monday.
He has been charged with ten counts of first-degree murder but his motive still remains unknown.
The #Boulder #Colorado shooter at King Soopers has been named: Ahmad Al Issa. Here are a few screenshots from his FB. pic.twitter.com/hY0WgZuTQd
— Shayla Raquel (@shaylaleeraquel) March 23, 2021
His Facebook posts over the last eighteen months prove to be deeply concerning.
His brother confirmed he was responsible for the shooting in an interview with The Daily Beast on Monday, saying he was "paranoid" and "very antisocial."
BREAKING - Photos from Ahmad Al Issa Facebook. #BoulderMassacre #BoulderShooter #AhmadAlIssa pic.twitter.com/u3i1KlRfbf
— Ralphy Malenga Esq🐋 (@arcey_p) March 23, 2021
He continued, saying he believes his brother is mentally ill. He said from a young age, he was convinced people were "after him," especially in high school.
And now, harrowing police calls relive the moment it all began.
Dispatch audio, obtained by NBC's 9News, details the first report of a shooter, the chaos of an active shooting, and the moment officers were unable to locate Alissa.
When the first reports of a shooting came in at around 2:30 pm, a dispatcher could be heard on the police scanner, alerting officers: "It looks like we have an active shooter."
As officers arrived at the scene, one could be heard shouting "Shooter inside! He just shot at us twice."
Following that, another officer yelled: "Officer down inside the building."
While another revealed: "Multiple people down so far. One officer down. Unknown status. We can't get to him."
As per the Daily Mail, audio obtained the Colorado Sun reveals that around thirty minutes into the shooting, officers were instructed: "Due to body armor, head-shots only."
Audio 2/2... Unknow where he is... correction he's downstairs"
— Revolution Rising (@RisingPDX) March 23, 2021
The suspects location was unknown for a short period.
As per Fox News, officers believed he could be setting up an ambush: "We have no known location of the shooter. We think he might be setting up an ambush."
Though officers were later able to obtain a visual of the suspect inside the store via a video feed.
Eventually, harrowing audio from a Denver SWAT team reveals they have "made contact" with the "possible suspect."
You can listen to the audio above.
Keep scrolling for all the latest...