US president Joe Biden urged Congress to pass stringent gun-control measures as the US reeled from its seventh mass shooting in a week after a gunman opened fire in a supermarket in Colorado, killing 10 people.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa (21), from Arvada, Colorado, was named by police as the only suspect in the killings, which took place on Monday afternoon in Boulder.
The suspect, who was taken to hospital with a leg injury after he was shot by police responding to the attack, was charged with 10 counts of murder in the first degree.
Initial reports said he was born in Syria, and Boulder County district attorney Michael Dougherty said he had spent "most of his life" in the US. He was expected to be transferred to jail later on Tuesday. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
One police officer, Eric Talley (51), and nine other people were killed in the attack in the King Soopers grocery store in the small mountain city just west of Denver. The victims, all of whom were named on Tuesday, ranged in age from 20 to 65.
Officials gave no indication of a motive for the mass shooting, which began at approximately 2.30pm. Police arrived at the scene within minutes, Boulder police chief Maris Herold said at a news conference.
The killer is believed to have used an AR-15-type rifle – a semi-automatic weapon that has been used in several shootings such as the Parkland school shooting in Florida in February 2019.
Earlier this month a district court judge blocked Boulder from enforcing a ban on such assault weapons, which was introduced after the Parkland shooting.
Six days
The Boulder attack took place just six days after eight people, mostly Asian-American women, were killed in multiple shooting incidents in massage parlours in the Atlanta area in Georgia.
A white male, Robert Aaron Long, was arrested and charged with the murders after he was apprehended by police on an interstate nearly 250km south of Atlanta, driving towards Florida.
Six other mass shooting incidents – attacks involving four victims or more – have occurred in the US over the past week alone, leaving two people dead.
Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Biden said he and his wife Jill were "devastated" at the news from Boulder. While still awaiting details of the motive of the suspects and the weapons used, he said: "I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future, and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act."
He called for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Noting that “another American city has been scarred by gun violence and the resulting trauma”, he also called on the Senate to pass two recent background-check bills passed by the House of Representatives.
“We have to act,” he said, as he ordered flags to be flown at half staff at the White House.
Earlier vice-president Kamala Harris offered her condolences to the victims, noting they were "10 people, going about their day, living their lives, not bothering anybody".
Gun violence
In a statement former president Barack Obama, who tried unsuccessfully to pass gun-control measures during his presidency, said that mass shootings had become "a normal we can no longer afford".
“It is long past time for those with the power to fight this epidemic of gun violence to do so,” he said. “We can overcome opposition by cowardly politicians and the pressure of a gun lobby that opposes any limit on the ability of anyone to assemble an arsenal. We can, and we must.”
Colorado has experienced several mass shooting incidents before, most notably the Columbine high school massacre in 1999 which resulted in 13 deaths.
In 2012 a gunman opened fire at an audience watching a Batman movie in Aurora, killing 12 people and wounding dozens more.
