Family and friends share stories of the loved ones killed during the Boulder, Colorado, grocery store shooting

Bob Olds said he will always remember his niece’s independence.

Rikki Olds, with her uncle Bob Olds, was a grocery store manager who was raised by her grandparents.

“Rikki lived life on her own terms,” he said. “She didn’t care about if people judged her on her hair color or what kind of tattoos she had.”

He added, “When Rikki showed up at the house, we never knew what color her hair was going to be, we never knew what new tattoos she may have.”

Olds recalled his niece’s dreams and ambitions. The young woman “wanted to be a nurse, but that plan got altered so Rikki had a backup plan,” Olds explained.

“Rikki was pursuing her dream of being a store manager at King Soopers.”

She had planned to come over to his house for a family gathering this week, he said. He can’t shake her last words to him: “See you Thursday.”

Monday, as news of the shooting spread, her family panicked when they couldn’t reach her. “We had to wait and agonize over her fate for several hours,” Bob Olds said.

“After calls to the police department and every local hospital and the coroner’s office, we finally received a call back from the coroner’s office.”

Two other associates of the store — Denny Stong, 20, and Teri Leiker, 51 — were among the victims, according to Kroger, which owns King Soopers.

Stong and Olds were graduates of the Boulder Valley School District, Superintendent Rob Anderson said in a statement.

“Several of the other victims were parents of our graduates and given the fact that this is a close knit community, there will likely be many other connections to BVSD schools both amongst those who were killed and other victims,” Anderson said.

“While we cannot fathom what would cause such an evil, we know that many in our community acted bravely when faced with unspeakable violence,” the superintendent said. Anderson pointed to the actions of first responders and of King Soopers employees who “acted courageously” in trying to get others to safety during the shooting.

“We are eternally grateful for their quick thinking and bravery,” Anderson said.

‘A wise young man’

Stong graduated from Fairview High School in 2019, and Olds graduated from Centaurus High School in 2013, he said.

One coworker described Stong as a “wise young man.”

Denny Stong

“Denny was like an annoying little brother to me. I loved him, we picked on each other but respected each other,” said 20-year-old Logan Ezra Smith, who worked with Stong at King Soopers.

“I want people to remember Denny as wise young man, me and him were both big Second Amendment supporters and would go shooting on the weekends, every weekends was a highlight.

“I will miss his smile and his laugh but as well as his honesty. He put you in your place.”

‘A bright light’

Suzanne Fountain, 59, was the sort of person who made those who met her feel they “already knew her,” friend Helen Forster told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

If you were having a bad day, Fountain’s smile would cheer you up, said Forster, who had known Fountain since the late 1980s.

“She just would light up the room, and she was a bright light,” Forster said. “It’s a terrible loss of an incredible human being.”

“All her life really she was about doing service, helping others,” Forster said.

“All you had to do is be around her or her give you a hug, and everything was better.”

Martha Harmon Pardee, an actress, told CNN Wednesday that she met Fountain on stage more than 30 years ago while performing in a show.

“I loved her immediately,” Pardee said. “That’s just what happened when people met her. She was a bright light, a peace lover, a strong feminist.”

Pardee said she and Fountain acted together only twice — “but I never missed a show she was in because I loved to watch her, always learned something.”

“It was a joy and an honor to work with her onstage because she was so connected, and so present and so generous,” she said.

‘The most loving person I’ve ever met’

Flowers, photos, balloons and messages formed a memorial for Tralona Bartkowiak, 49, outside Umba, the Boulder yoga and accessories shop she managed.

Matisse Molina, a friend who worked at Bartkowiak’s store, described her as “the most amazing person I ever met in my life.”

Molina said “she would rather make friends than sell stuff from her store.”

“There aren’t any words that could describe her to who she really was, because she was so amazing,” Molina said.

“She touched so many lives, I can’t even tell you. She has brought people from very dark places up to their highest points. She helped me as a person grow tremendously,” Molina added.

Bartkowiak had recently gotten engaged for the first time, a friend told CNN’s Kyung Lah on Tuesday night.

Tralona Bartkowiak

“She helped raise me, she was always there for me,” he said. “She was the most loving person I’ve ever met in my whole life.”

Four other victims

The chief also identified the names and ages of the other victims:

Neven Stanisic – 23

Kevin Mahoney – 61

Lynn Murray – 62

Jody Waters – 65

A father of 7 was among those killed

Officer Talley ran into danger as the first officer to respond to a call “about a possible person with a patrol rifle,” the police chief said.

“I have to tell you the heroic action of this officer when he responded to the scene,” Herold said.

She said Talley, 51, had been on the force since 2010.

“He loved his family more than anything,” Homer Talley said.

Officer Talley’s bravery was obvious on his last day of duty, his family said.

“Didn’t surprise me he was the first one there,” his father said.