Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, who was the first officer to arrive on the scene during the tragic shooting incident yesterday in Boulder, Colorado, was a graduate of Ball State University in Indiana.

Officer Eric Talley of the Boulder Police Department

In a statement issued earlier today, Ball State University announced, “We mourn the death of Eric Talley, the Boulder police officer who was murdered yesterday. Officer Talley, who earned two degrees from Ball State, was a hero who died saving the lives of other people. Today, we honor Officer Talley and his family, friends, and fellow officers.”

Officer Talley was an alum of the Ball State University Center for Information & Communication Sciences and the department also released a statement:

“Please join us in mourning the loss of a CICS alum gone too soon and leaving behind a family who is forever changed. Our hearts ache for those who he left behind. As a first responder in Boulder yesterday, Officer Talley is rightfully being called a hero, we echo that completely and mourn this tragic loss deeply.

"For years, Eric Talley had a stable job in information technology that provided for his children and his wife, who educated their seven children in their Colorado home.

“But in 2010, after one of his closest friends died in a DUI crash, he quit, left behind his master’s degree and enrolled in the police academy at 40 years old, according to his friends and family.”

“It was remarkable to me that somebody would go to law enforcement from IT,” Jeremy Herko, who is now a lieutenant with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, told The Washington Post. “He lost pay. He lost time away from his family. He joined the police academy without a guaranteed job.”