Mass shooting in Colorado: Boulder community commemorates the ten victims
Boulder, Colorado, is mourning the 10 people killed in a shooting at a King Soopers grocery store.
Employee video, USA TODAY
The man accused of killing 10 people in a mass shooting at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 was found guilty on all 10 counts of murder on Monday, according to Suzanne Karrer, communications director for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 25, was charged with 10 counts of murder and a range of other charges, including attempted murder, assault and possession of a firearm. A jury returned the verdict after a two-week trial that included long delays while Alissa received treatment for mental health. He was found fit to stand trial following a stay in a psychiatric hospital that was due to begin in 2023.
At trial, the facts of the case were not disputed: On March 22, 2021, Alissa opened fire at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, killing two people in the parking lot and eight people inside the store. Alissa pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and his defense attorney argued that he was so mentally ill at the time that he could not distinguish between right and wrong and should not be held legally responsible.
The 10 dead included Eric Talley, Rikki Olds, Denny Stong, Neven Stanisic, Tralona Bartkowiak, Teri Leiker, Suzanne Fountain, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray and Jody Waters. They ranged in age from 20 to 65. Talley was one of the first police officers to respond to the panicked 911 calls, and the other victims included customers and store employees.
Alissa’s conviction means he will automatically receive a life sentence without parole under Colorado law, a state that does not have the death penalty.
The jury found Alissa guilty on all 55 counts, Karrer said: 10 counts of premeditated murder, 38 counts of attempted premeditated murder, 1 count of assault and 6 counts of illegal possession of a prohibited large firearms magazine.
Jurors hear testimony from survivors and watch surveillance video of the shooting
Authorities said Alissa opened fire around 2:30 p.m. on March 22, 2021, taking just over a minute to kill the majority of his victims. All of the people he shot at were killed. The shooting ended when Alissa was shot in the leg by a police officer.
Prosecutors said Alissa acted deliberately and calculatedly during the shooting, hunting down his victims with the goal of killing as many people as possible. Jurors heard from investigators, doctors and survivors of the shooting and saw gruesome surveillance and body camera footage.
According to the Denver Gazette, pharmacist Sarah Chen testified that she heard Alissa say, “This is fun,” several times as she took cover during the shooting.
Assistant District Attorney Ken Kupfner told jurors that Alissa showed clear intent to kill by shooting moving victims until they were dead. In his closing argument, he also said that Alissa’s decision to surrender showed that Alissa could tell right from wrong and that his conduct was illegal.
When asked by a doctor after the shooting why he surrendered and stripped down to his underwear and removed his weapons, armor and clothing, Alissa replied that he did it so that he “would not be shot by the police,” Kupfner said.
“He understood that his behavior was illegal. He understood that it was not good behavior,” Kupfner said.
Defense claims: “Insanity is the only explanation for this tragedy”
After the shooting, Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia while in custody. He was declared incompetent to stand trial and underwent treatment, delaying the murder trial. In 2023, Boulder District Court Judge Ingrid Bakke ruled that he had regained sanity and the trial could proceed. The decision did not mean that he no longer suffered from schizophrenia, but that he was now able to understand the proceedings and participate in his defense.
“Insanity is the only explanation for this tragedy,” defense attorney Kathryn Herold said during her closing argument Friday. “This tragedy is the result of an illness, not a conscious choice… Mr. Alissa committed these crimes because he was psychotic and delusional.”
Alissa heard “killing voices” in the moments before the shooting, Herold said. Herold screamed in the courtroom to demonstrate the screaming voices she said Alissa heard. “Kill! Kill! Kill!” she screamed.
Herold told jurors that an acquittal by reason of insanity would hold the defendant accountable because it does not mean he is innocent of the shooting. Alissa’s defense has never argued that he did not commit the crime.
The trial also heard testimony from both of Alissa’s parents. They told jurors they believed their son was “sick” and was acting strangely before the shooting. Alissa’s mother, Khadija Ahidid, said through an interpreter that her son believed he was being followed by the FBI, talked to himself and isolated himself from the family starting in 2019, according to the Associated Press. She said his condition worsened after he became ill with COVID months before the shooting.
“We thought he was probably possessed by a ghost or something,” his father, Moustafa Alissa, said through an interpreter, AP reported.
One of the prosecutors, Kupfner, said there was no doubt that Alissa was mentally ill, but that this was not the same as insanity and he was able to distinguish between right and wrong.
“We agree that he is mentally ill. He has schizophrenia, but he is not crazy,” said Kupfner.
Contributors: Reuters
