BOULDER, Colo. (A.P.) – Inside a small room where she and four others were hiding from a gunman steps away from their locked door, Olympic hopeful Maggie Montoya made a quiet and emotional phone call to her parents.
To tell them one last time that she loved them.
“Because I honestly thought,” Montoya softly said, “that was it.”
The 25-year-old distance runner was working in the pharmacy at the King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, on March 22 when ten people were killed, including a police officer, in a mass shooting.
For a harrowing hour or so, she and those with her waited in the room – growing more and more fearful that a constantly ringing pharmacy phone outside their door would betray their location – until they were escorted to safety by the SWAT team after the shooter was arrested.
The next day, her dad took Montoya home to Rogers, Arkansas – to be with family and remember those who lost their lives. To escape even for a moment on long runs with her boyfriend as she trains for the 10,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.
To emotionally mend from that time, she spent behind a metal door where she could hear everything, including the chilling voice of the gunman. And to forget this image: Bloody footprints close to that door that she was later told likely belonged to the wounded gunman.
“Being home helped me separately and worked through everything that had just happened,” she said.
On that Monday afternoon, Montoya was just a few hours into her shift following an exciting weekend. She finished seventh at the USA Track & Field 15-kilometer championships in Florida.
A pharmacy tech, Montoya, was helping with paperwork for customers receiving COVID-19 vaccinations when she heard a loud noise. At first, she couldn’t place it.
A dropped jar in an aisle? Fireworks?
Her manager instantly recognized the sound of gunfire and yelled, active shooter.
Everyone scattered.
Montoya and four others ran into the consultation room right off the pharmacy, with a door locked to the customer’s side.
“There was so much gunfire,” she recalled. “I just thought, ‘I don’t know how many shooters there are.’ We were waiting for the moment that they were going to hop the counter in the pharmacy and be able to get into the room with us.”
She called Mom and Dad. She then handed her phone to her boss, who texted her husband.
As they waited, Montoya messaged her running coach, Dr. Richard Hansen, who was working nearby and provided constant updates as he watched a live broadcast.
That pharmacy phone was outside their door, though. It wouldn’t stop ringing.
About 20 times, Montoya estimated. Each ring made their hearts skip faster, fearing that the sound could alert the gunman to their presence.
One of them held a chair, just in case. It was their only defense. Over the store’s loudspeaker, Montoya said she heard an announcement to the shooter to surrender. She said the gunman screamed his response with a closeness that startled them. It sounded like he was right outside their door.
Just before the SWAT team entered the grocery store, Hansen alerted her.
The warning helped.
“Because it was super loud and very shocking,” she said. “If I hadn’t known, that would have been horrible to hear without knowing that it was the people coming to get us.”
She heard people conducting a sweep of the area, then hopping the pharmacy counter, and later a knock on the door – the SWAT team. Montoya and her group – reunited with colleagues and customers – were led outside the store. On the way, Montoya spotted what was believed to be the gunman’s bloody footprints near their room.
Waiting for Montoya outside the store was her boyfriend, Jordan Carpenter. They embraced.
Hansen felt a wave of immense relief, too. He and Montoya exchanged 60 or so text messages during the ordeal.
Later, a thought hit Hansen hard: “That at any point, those messages could’ve stopped and what that would’ve meant,” he said. “It’s a pretty haunting realization.”
Montoya‘s father arrived the following day, and they drove home to northwest Arkansas. To get away and out of her apartment near the store.
While there, she went on training runs she used to take in high school. Her boyfriend accompanied her, too, so she didn’t have to reflect on that day.
“I needed that time to be at home and with my family,” said Montoya, unsure if she will work again at the store. “To be somewhere familiar and just think of good memories.”
Montoya, a decorated runner at Baylor, has found another gear over the last two seasons. Earlier this month, she returned to Boulder to rejoin her teammates with the Roots Running Project and continue training for the trials. She will be running to earn one of the three U.S. spots in the 10,000 meters in the Tokyo Games.
