Colorado store where 10 died reopening to mixed emotions

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Hours before a gunman opened fire at a bustling Colorado supermarket, Teri Leiker called her mother to tell her how excited she was to return from vacation to her job as a front-end bagger where she loved her customers and her colleagues.

She never came back home.

About 30 minutes before she was set to finish her shift on March 22, 2021, Leiker was shot and killed along with nine other people inside and outside the store. Nearly a year later, the redesigned King Soopers in the college town of Boulder is set to reopen Wednesday, a move that is triggering mixed emotions for families of the victims.

For Leiker's mother, Margie Whittington, the reopening of the store, which will bear name of the neighborhood emblazoned on the front, is a way of showing that evil does not triumph.

“When they see ‘Table Mesa’ they’ll know that this store did not get torn down and the shooter didn’t prevail,” said Whittingham, who said her daughter’s former co-workers and customers have reached out to comfort her. Leiker, who lived independently despite having cognitive disabilities, worked at the store for 32 years.

But the uncle of Rikki Olds, a front-end manager who was also killed at the store, thinks it may have been better to tear the store down, getting rid of the place where so much tragedy happened.

“What happened is still there,” Robert Olds said of the shooting.

Robert Olds hopes the newly designed store has better security than at the time of the shooting, including some of the measures he is responsible for as a school security supervisor. He would also like to see supermarkets install panic buttons that alert police to a shooting and automatically lock store doors, like schools have, and to also monitor their security cameras for signs of trouble,...