A Colordao jury returned 55 guilty counts Monday for the man charged with killing 10 people and wounded 38 more at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder in 2021.
The jury deliberated for less than a day before finding Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 25, guilty of 10 counts of murder, 38 counts of attempted murder, and weapons charges, Colorado Public Radio reported.
The jury rejected Alissa’s claim that he was insane and obeying voices in his head when he opened fire on March 22, 2021. One of the victims was a Boulder police officer who entered the store after the shooting started, as CrimeOnline reported.
No one disputed that Alissa suffered from schizophrenia during the three-week long trial, CPR said. But prosecutors presented evidence that he had been actively planning the attack for months before carrying it out. He researched other mass shootings and bought weapons and bomb making materials. And he went to the shooting range to practice.
“I didn’t commit the attack in January. Didn’t commit the attack in February … because I was still practicing, and wasn’t ready. By March I had enough practice,” he told doctors after the shooting.
On the day of the shooting, he dropped his brother off at work and then drove to the store in Boulder. He shot three people dead in the parking lot and then went into the store, where he killed seven more people, including 51-year-old Eric Talley, the police officer who responded to the shooting.
Also killed were Rikki Olds, 25; Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Teri Leiker, 51; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65.
Alissa was sentenced to life in prison after the guilty verdicts were read.
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[Featured image: FILE – Tributes cover the temporary fence around the King Soopers grocery store in which 10 people died in a mass shooting in late March on Friday, April 23, 2021, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)]
