CU Boulder’s Response to King Soopers Shooting
BOULDER – Almost one year ago, the CU Boulder administration dealt with backlash after students expressed concern over a lack of communication from the university concerning their safety during the Boulder King Soopers shooting.
University of Colorado Boulder parent Wendy Huerter was panicked about her daughter’s location during the King Soopers shooting in Boulder last March. She stated that CU’s lack of communication and updates heightened that panic.
“I was deeply saddened for the entire community and the student body that had already endured a year of losses and tragedies because of the pandemic,” Huerter said.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m. on March 22, 2021, shots were fired at the King Soopers on Table Mesa Dr. Police arrived at the location of the shooting shortly after the first shot was fired. Ten people were killed, including officer Eric Talley. Talley was the first officer on the scene.
The grocery store is two miles south of CU Boulder’s main campus. Some students lived across the street from the area of the shooting. Nevertheless, students were not alerted by the school until almost an hour after the first shots were fired.
CU has an alert system that students are highly encouraged to activate during registration, and if you haven’t signed up for it, you can do so here. The emergency alert system sends notifications to students’ and faculty’s phones and emails. In the case of an emergency, the 672-83 number appears on registered phones.
Christine Mahoney, CUPD’s public information officer and spokesperson, advised attention to be brought to most of the articles posted about CU’s alert system, which can be found here. Information regarding test alerts is included in the article.
The first alert after the shooting read, “CU Alert: Boulder Police are responding to an active shooter at the King Soopers at Table Mesa and Broadway in south Boulder. AVOID THE AREA.” The alert was sent at 3:28 p.m.
The following alerts were recited: “CU Alert 2: Police asking people near 17th & Grove to shelter in place while they respond to reports of an armed, dangerous individual.” 5:27 p.m. “CU Alert 3: Classes beginning at 5:30 p.m. and later are canceled due to an ongoing police situation off campus.” 5:38 p.m. “CU Alert 4: Per Boulder Police, no further ongoing threat. Witnesses should contact BPD at 303-441-3333.” 7:18 p.m.
Students began to panic when word got out about the shooting, and there was no communication from the CU Alert system between around 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Students had received information through school media, classmates and teachers before getting the initial CU alert.
Tom Yulsman, a CU journalism professor, sent an email to his classes that said, “Hi everyone,
I just received an urgent text from my wife saying there’s an active shooting incident at the Table Mesa King Soopers in Boulder. She said she found out when she pulled over as at least 10 police cars raced past her, evidently on the way to the scene. Please be aware that I haven’t confirmed any of this, but I thought I should let you know right away so if you had any plans to be in that area you can steer clear.”
Yulsman’s email was one of many that were sent out by professors. Multiple professors ended their classes well before CU officially halted classes.
“I was in a Zoom class when my professor went silent and looked down. Everyone thought that her audio stopped working. She was receiving the news that gunshots had been fired at King Soopers. She informed the class of the situation and we ended the day. I didn’t hear anything else from CU for another 45 minutes,” said CU student Mary Claire Poth.
Around 8:00 p.m., CU Chancellor Philip DiSefano sent out an email informing CU students and faculty in detail about the event that had occurred that afternoon. By this point, students had already been made aware of the situation from sources other than CU, which upset many students and their families. There was very little communication given to the student body about the emergency at hand.
There have been emergency events since the shooting that have had delayed alerts as well, including an active shooter threat on Halloween and reported gunshots on the Hill in early December. The school is being proactive in making a change to their response time. However, students are still worried about the timeliness and communication of these events.
The Marshall Fire took place over CU’s winter break. There were no CU alerts at the time of the actual fire, even though off-campus students were still in Boulder. Acknowledgment of the fires by the school didn’t come until later.
Threats made on Feb. 1 launched a shelter-in-place for all residents of the 955 Broadway and University Hill Elementary area. Many students were enraged that classes still carried on through this threat, due to the area of risk being so close to the UMC, one of the schools most populated buildings.
