The Connecticut State Police are among those who expressed their deepest sympathies to Boulder, Colorado police and the community there following the mass shooting at a supermarket on Monday which left 10 people dead.
Officer Eric Talley, a 51-year-old father of seven, was first on scene and rushed toward the gunfire.
“That officer died with great heroism and great honor,” said Brian Foley, an assistant to Connecticut's Public Safety Commissioner. “Your first priority is to go in there and stop the killing.”
Foley says a while ago officers arriving at an active shooter situation were taught to wait for backup.
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But Columbine and Sandy Hook prompted law enforcement to change tactics.
Training now teaches officers to go in right away after the threat.
“The theory behind that is this: the active shooter is in there shooting innocent victims. A police officer is not going to stand outside and listen to those gunshots go off knowing he can go in there and possibly try to stop that,” said Foley.
Foley says the idea is the officer could take out the shooter or at least just distract him.
“Every second he is concentrating on that police officer one person gets away, two persons get away, three persons get away,” said Foley.
Helping to save lives even if it might cost a police officer their own.
“It’s a reminder that it could happen to any police officer here in the state,” said Foley.
Now sadly Boulder joins a growing list of mass shootings that law enforcement can learn lessons from, including the actions of Officer Talley, and then use in future training.
