BOULDER — A supermarket in Colorado where a gunman killed 10 people last month plans to reopen in late fall following renovations, the store said Wednesday.
King Soopers is planning an extensive redesign of the Boulder location, company spokesperson Jessica Trowbridge said Wednesday, rather than demolishing the building as the company had considered.
The store has been closed since a 21-year-old man opened fire on customers, employees and responding police officers on March 22, authorities said. One of the first officers on scene was killed.
Store representatives and city officials agreed that the renovations and reopening would be a key step for a community still reeling from the shooting, the Denver Post reported.
The renovations may include added security measures, Trowbridge said, without elaborating on what those could be.
The company said it is working with employees who survived the shooting to ensure they are comfortable returning to the store. The employees in the supermarket during the attack will receive emergency pay through June 19, Trowbridge said.
A motive for the shooting is still not clear. Ahmad Alissa has been charged with murder and attempted murder, and his defense team has suggested he suffers from mental illness without offering more details.
Another mass shooting happened in Colorado early Sunday. A man upset he wasn’t invited to a birthday party thrown by his girlfriend’s family fatally shot six people and then killed himself in Colorado Springs.
Before the Colorado Springs shooting, a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University showed there had been at least 11 mass shootings since Jan. 1, compared with just two public mass shootings in 2020.