• 3 days ago
Two decades of mass shootings in Colorado: a timeline.
Transcript
00:00And if you had suggested to anyone behind me or in this room that within 20 years and
00:0520 miles we would have dealt with Columbine, Aurora Theater, Arapaho High School, the shooting
00:14of Zach Parrish and four other deputies, we'd have thought you mad.
00:17We've been through this.
00:18We know how the feelings are going to feel.
00:21We know what's going to come next.
00:23And it doesn't.
00:24It's harder.
00:41I'm in the library.
00:42I've got students down on the table, kids!
00:46Heads under the table!
00:47Are on paper screaming, we need police, can we-
00:54I've been a cop for 27 years.
01:05I've been a SWAT officer since 1980 and this was clearly the most devastating and traumatic
01:14scene that I've ever seen or been associated with.
01:17I hope never to see it again.
01:19Used to be .22 caliber and low caliber weapons out there are being replaced with 9mm semi-automatic.
01:26Some of them are automatic weapons.
01:27There are automatic weapons out there in the civilian populace and so we're seeing a different
01:32kind of wounds.
01:33We're seeing more high-powered injuries, vastly more significant damaging wounds.
01:49It's unfortunate that we live in a society where this happens but it does.
02:12As the names of victims emerged late Friday and early Saturday morning, candlelight vigils
02:17and makeshift memorials were set up around the cinema where suspected gunman James Holmes
02:22wounded 58 and killed 12.
02:33As a country we have been through this too many times.
02:37Whether it's an elementary school in Newton or a shopping mall in Oregon or a temple in
02:44Wisconsin or a movie theater in Aurora or a street corner in Chicago, these neighborhoods
02:50are our neighborhoods and these children are our children and we're going to have to come
02:57together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the
03:34You know, you see it on the news almost every day now that this kind of thing is happening
03:38and you start to get numb like a video game.
03:41It's really like that.
03:43And then all of a sudden it happens to you and then you get it.
03:49Then you get it.
03:50It's like, what are we going to do to help each other to end this sort of violence?
04:07You got some guy out there killing people because he thinks Planned Parenthood are killing
04:12people.
04:13That don't make sense.
04:32We have serious concerns about competency in this case.
04:37Protect babies.
04:52I think we had a individual who is a psychopath.
04:56I think he wanted to kill people.
04:58He practiced it.
04:59He went to the shooting range that afternoon and he fulfilled what he wanted to do and
05:03he accomplished his goals by going in that Walmart in 21 seconds, shattering three families'
05:09lives and hundreds and hundreds of other people that were in that Walmart as well as the community.
05:17I heard gunshots.
05:18They were very close.
05:21Someone's down right here.
05:25Something just happened here, guys.
05:27We need 911 here now.
05:50He served in numerous roles supporting the Boulder Police Department and the community
05:55of Boulder.
05:57And I have to tell you the heroic action of this officer when he responded to this scene.
06:04He was the first on the scene and he was fatally shot.
06:25The United States Senate, I hope some are listening, should immediately pass the two
06:42House-passed bills that close loopholes in the background check system.
06:47These are bills that receive votes of both Republicans and Democrats in the House.
06:52This is not and should not be a partisan issue.
06:55This is an American issue.
06:57It will save lives, American lives, and we have to act.
07:03We should also ban assault weapons in the process.
07:06I'll have much more to say as we learn more, but I wanted to be clear.
07:11Those poor folks who died left behind families, it leaves a big hole in their hearts and we
07:20can save lives.