edeoA police officer, a store manager and people shopping for food: the victims of the shooting rampage in Boulder, Colorado have nothing in common except that they were all buying groceries on Monday afternoon.

They range in age from 20 to 65.

“I wish I could stand here and promise that the pain will heal quickly,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said during a news conference on Tuesday.

“But it won’t… At times like this, it’s hard to see the light that shines through the darkness.”

Here’s what we know about the victims so far.

“Rikki was living her dream. She was pursuing her dream of being a store manager at King Soopers,” her uncle, Bob Olds, told reporters.

“She was 25-years-old. She didn’t get to experience a lot of the stuff that we get to experience in life,” he continued.

“She had dreams. She had ambitions,” Mr Olds said.

He described her as the “light of our family”, sharing how his niece was often seen sporting a new hair colour; how she used to call him “Uncle Bobob” as a child; how she would snort when she laughed.

A supermarket colleague, Carlee Lough, said Ms Olds would dance to the music at the store, and do “anything to make you smile, make you laugh”.

According to her Facebook profile, Ms Olds went to high school in Lafayette, Colorado, and attended the nearby Front Range Community College.

“Rikki baby, you were taken too soon. I miss you dearly,” her boyfriend Jordan Arthur posted on Facebook the day after her death.

Kevin Mahoney’s death was confirmed on Twitter by his daughter, Erika. She said her father died while shopping at their local grocery store, which was five minutes from the house she grew up in.

“My dad represents all things Love. I’m so thankful he could walk me down the aisle last summer,” she wrote on Twitter with photos from her wedding.

Ms Mahoney described her father to NPR as “a dad to the entire neighbourhood here in my hometown of Boulder”.

She is now expecting a child and is devastated her father will never be able to meet his granddaughter.

“I think about my daughter and that my dad will never be able to hold her,” she said.

“I will tell her that he had the biggest heart, and he was funny. He had this funny quirk where if you said a word and it was in a song, he would burst out in song.”

“I know on some level he will be there to meet her,” Ms Mahoney said.

Officer Talley, a father of seven children, joined the police force at the age of 40 after leaving a job in IT.

The 10-year police veteran “died charging into the line of fire to save people who were simply trying to live their lives and go food shopping,” said Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

In an emotional news conference, his fellow officers shared how, when one of Officer Talley’s children swallowed a coin, another was able to perform CPR after learning the technique from his dad. The child was given a “life-saver” award from the Boulder Police Department a few weeks ago for his efforts.

“He didn’t have to go into policing. He had a profession before this, but he felt a higher calling. And he loved this community,” said Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold.

“And he’s everything that policing deserves and needs. He cared about this community. He cared about Boulder police department. He cared about his family. And he was willing to die to protect others.”

In 2013, Eric Talley made headlines in the Boulder Daily Camera newspaperafter he and other officers waded out into knee-deep cold water to rescue a family of ducklings caught in a drainage ditch.

“He was looking for a job to keep himself off of the front lines and was learning to be a drone operator,” said his father Homer Talley.

President Joe Biden paid tribute to the fallen policeman, saying: “Officer Talley did not hesitate in his duty, making the ultimate sacrifice in order to save lives. That’s the definition of an American hero.”

Teri Leiker had worked at the King Soopers grocery store for 30 years, her friend Lexi Knutson told Reuters.

“She loved going to work and enjoyed everything about being there,” Ms Knutson said, adding Ms Leiker was dating a colleague who survived the attack.

“Her boyfriend and her had been good friends and began dating in the fall of 2019. He was working yesterday too. He is alive.”

Ms Knutson said Ms Leiker may have got her job through a programme for people with special needs.

A Facebook profile for Mr Stong says that he lived in Boulder and began working for the King Soopers grocery store in December 2018.

“I can’t stay home. I am a grocery store worker,” he wrote on his Facebook profile picture.

Mr Stong described himself as a fan of planes, bikes and motorcycles.

On 8 March, he asked people to celebrate his birthday by donating to a pro-gun rights charity.

“He did nothing wrong and deserved this in no way at all. He made no choice that led to this,” a friend wrote on a verified GoFundMe page to raise money for his family.

“He simply showed up to work, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Tralona Bartkowiak, who was known to her friends as Lonna, ran a clothing shop in Boulder called Umba Love.

“We put the fun in functional,” the store wrote on Facebook, adding that the shop was founded by Ms Bartkowiak and her sister, Lisa Noble, after a trip to Bali.

“Fuelled by their passion for travel, music, and art, the two of them began selling clothing at music venues, festivals, and local fairs, and Umba came to be.”

Mr Stanisic worked as a repairman and had been called to the store to fix a broken coffee machine, the reverend at his family’s church told local media.

His family came to the US in the 1990s to escape the violent conflict in Bosnia.

“They avoided one tragedy by coming here, but now this tragedy struck them,” said Rev Radovan Petrovic of the St John the Baptist Serbian Orthodox Church in Lakewood, Colorado.

“We’ve known the family ever since we became their spiritual father and mother here,” Rev Petrovic’s wife told the Denver Post.

“He was a very good, shy, hardworking boy and one of those kiddos who listened to his parents the best.”

Mrs Fountain worked in a live music venue in Boulder called eTown Hall, according to the Washington Post.

“She was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” long-time friend Helen Forster, who owns the venue with her husband, Nick, told the newspaper.

“Just in the way she dealt with people and in the way that she was always fair and calm and reassuring. She just was a joy to be around.”

The venue confirmed the death of their house manager, writing on Facebook that she “was a bright light to all she met, and we were proud to have her represent eTown in our community as she welcomed people into our space hundreds and hundreds of times”.

“This is an unfathomable loss for all of us and a painful reminder that our society can and must do a better job to prevent these acts of violence from becoming normalised in our culture.”

Ms Murray, a mother of two, was working to fill a grocery delivery service order when she died.

Her husband, John Mackenzie, told the New York Times that she had retired from working in New York as a magazine photo director and enjoyed helping people as an Instacart shopper.

“I just want her to be remembered as just this amazing, amazing comet, spending 62 years flying across the sky,” said Mr Mackenzie.

“Our tomorrows are forever filled with a sorrow that is unimaginable.”

Mrs Waters is remembered by friends as a friendly boutique store owner who was a fixture in the Boulder retail fashion community.

“I know her from a store on the Pearl Street Mall where I shop,” Colorado State Congresswoman Judy Amabile told The Denver Post.

She called Mrs Waters “just super energetic and nice and fun”.

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