Officer Eric Talley was the first officer to respond to reports of an armed man inside a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday — and it’s where the father of seven died after actions that were described as “heroic” by officials.
The member of the Boulder Police Department was one of 10 people killed when a gunman opened fire at the King Soopers store. Officials have not disclosed the names of the other victims.
Officer Eric Talley was 51 and the father of seven children.
Talley, 51, had been a member of the force since 2010, according to Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold.
“Didn’t surprise me he was the first one there,” Talley’s father, Homer Talley, told CNN affiliate KUSA.He is survived by his wife and seven children, the oldest of whom is 20, according to his father.
“He loved his family more than anything,” Homer Talley said.He described his son was a prankster with a “great sense of humor,” the affiliate reported.
In 2013, Talley was among a small group of Boulder officers who made headlines after a duckling rescue from a drainage ditch. The officer had “waded into the calf-deep water to try to round up the ducks” and save them, the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder had reported.
Talley is the first officer from the Boulder police department to be killed in the line of duty since 1994 and the sixth on-duty death in the department’s history, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
According to KUSA, Homer Talley said his son had recently been looking into becoming a drone operator because he believed it was safer.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/23/us/boulder-officer-killed-talley-profile/index.html