‘The light of our family’: Uncle of Colorado shooting victim Rikki Olds pays tribute to grocery store manager

Ms Olds was a store manager at a King Soopers market where the shooting took place

This 2013 photo provided by Robert Olds shows Rikki Olds, left, taking a selfie with her uncle Robert. Rikki Olds, 25, an employee of King Soopers, was slain Monday, March 22, 2021, in the supermarket shooting that killed multiple people in Boulder, Colo. Her grandmother choked up on the phone as she described the young woman she played a large role in raising. "She was just a very kind and loving, bubbly person who lit up the room when she walked in," said Jeanette Olds, 71, of Lafayette, Colo. ((Courtesy of Robert Olds via AP))

Robert Olds, whose niece Rikki, 25, was one of the 10 people killed at a mass shooting on Monday in a King Soopers grocery store in Colorado, remembered her as the “light of our family” in an emotional press conference on Wednesday.

“Rikki was truly special to us,” Mr Olds said. “She was vibrant. She was bubbly. Rikki was kind of the light of our family. When Rikki showed up at the house, we never knew what colour her hair was going to be. We never knew what new tattoo she may have, but that was Rikki.”

“She had dreams. She had ambitions. She was moving up the ladder at King Soopers,” he added. “Now she can’t do those things. She was one-of-a-kind.”

Her uncle described how she originally planned to pursue nursing, and later became a manager at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, where the shooting took place. Both career paths, Mr Olds said, reflected Rikki’s warm spirit around people.

“The customer service and helping people, that’s what it was about,” he said. “That’s kind of what the nursing thing was about, too.”

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A coworker of Rikki’s, Carlee Lough, said much the same.

“She was very level-headed and could kind of diffuse a situation with any customer,” she said.

Ms Olds was one of 10 people killed during the shooting, a group that included two other store employees and a Boulder police officer Eric Talley, 51. The full list of those killed is as follows, according to the Boulder police department:

• Neven Stanisic, 23
• Rikki Olds, 25
• Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
• Suzanne Fountain, 59
• Teri Leiker, 51
• Eric Talley, 51
• Kevin Mahoney, 61
• Lynn Murray, 62
• Jody Waters, 65
• Denny Stong, 20

Police have apprehended Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, of nearby Arvada, Colorado, as a suspect in the shooting, and he faces 10 counts of first-degree murder and an attempted murder charge. Authorities still have not established a motive for the killings.

The shooting in Colorado was the second mass killing in a week, coming just six days after a Georgia man shot eight people in the Atlanta area, six of them women of Asian descent. Both events have inspired a renewed push for federal gun control legislation.

Robert Olds, whose niece Rikki died in a mass shooting in Colorado on Monday, pays tribute to his family member in a press conference on Wednesday.

The Biden administration has said it is working on executive actions to address the gun violence epidemic in America, which kills tens of thousands of people each year and actually accelerated during the pandemic. They’ve also thrown their support behind renewing the assault weapons ban, and bills which have already passed the House, which would allow for stronger background checks and close gun sale loopholes.

“I know the vice president touched on the fact if we want something to be permanent if we want it to be lasting, we need it to be legislation. He certainly believes that,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a press briefing on Wednesday. “But there are also executive actions under consideration that we will continue working through internally and there’s lots of leverage you can take, obviously, as president and vice president.”

The shootings have also revived a push for more gun measures at the state and local level, after a previous attempt from the city of Boulder to ban assault weapons was struck down in court nearly three years ago under a Colorado state law that forbids local jurisdictions from making gun laws, in what’s known as “preemption.”