AUGUSTA, Maine — Nearly one week after eight were killed in a shooting rampage in the Atlanta metro area, 10 people, including a police officer, were killed in a mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Following the tragedy, President Joe Biden directed that flags in U.S. states and territories be lowered in honor of the victims.
Gov. Janet Mills is following that directive to states, announcing Tuesday that all flags in Maine will be flown at half-staff through Saturday, March 27.
“On behalf of the people of Maine, I extend our deepest condolences to the people of Colorado, especially all those whose loved ones were taken from them this week,” Mills said in a statement. “In a mark of respect to the victims of this horrific tragedy, and in honor of their lives, I am directing that the State of Maine flag fly at half-staff through the end of this week.”
Flags in Maine and across the U.S. were also directed to be lowered last Thursday through Monday after the Atlanta spa shootings.
Biden delivered remarks from the White House Tuesday afternoon on the Boulder shooting and urged lawmakers in the House and Senate to pass gun legislation.
"The United States Senate should immediately pass, I hope some are listening, should immediately pass the two House passed bills that close loopholes in the background check system," Biden said, as he called for tougher gun control laws and to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
Investigators don’t know yet why the suspect opened fire inside the grocery store, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said. He said the investigation is in the early stages but that detectives believe the suspect was the only shooter, Dougherty said.
The attack in Boulder, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado, stunned a state that has seen several mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting.
Monday's midafternoon attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., following the March 16 shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.