Gunman who killed 10 people in Colorado supermarket in 2021 convicted of murder

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – A Colorado jury on Monday rejected and convicted a man diagnosed with the severe mental disorder schizophrenia of first-degree murder in a mass shooting at a grocery store in the city of Boulder in 2021 that killed 10 people, including a police officer.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 25, had pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity. Instead, the jury found the Syrian-born man guilty of ten counts of first-degree murder in Boulder District Court.

In Colorado, first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Had Alissa been found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would have been committed to the state mental hospital, and any release from that facility would have required a judge's approval.

That Alissa committed the shooting spree was never in dispute. The case focused on his mental state at the time of the shooting. Under Colorado law, a person must be deemed incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong for an insanity defense to succeed.

According to authorities, Alissa was armed with a legally purchased Ruger AR-556 pistol, which resembles an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, when he entered the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, about 30 miles northwest of Denver, on March 22, 2021.

Alissa shot two people in the parking lot before entering the store and killing eight others, including a police officer who responded to the shooting.

“He is methodical and brutal,” District Attorney Michael Dougherty told jurors in his closing argument.

The psychologists and psychiatrists who testified during the trial agreed that Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a serious mental illness. But that diagnosis alone does not make a person legally incompetent.

“This tragedy is the result of an illness and not a conscious decision,” defense attorney Kathryn Herold told the jury.

Eyewitnesses described Alissa's concentrated manner of opening fire, shooting at least two of his victims at close range after he had already wounded them with the first volley.

Sarah Chen, a pharmacist who was working that day, testified during the trial that she heard Alissa scream with pleasure as he fired his gun while she and other employees crouched behind a counter.

“He said, 'This is fun, this is so much fun,'” Chen testified.

Alissa was born in Syria, and his family immigrated to the United States when he was a young child, settling in a suburb of Denver. His parents and some of his siblings testified that in high school, Alissa began to withdraw, act paranoid, and talk to himself.

“In our culture, it is shameful to say our son is crazy,” said his father, Moustafa Alissa. “We thought he was probably possessed by spirits.”

Alissa did not testify in his defense.

The psychiatric staff who have been dealing with the defendant since his arrest testified that at no time did he express a clear motive for the massacre.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman and Daniel Trotta. Editing by Donna Bryson and Will Dunham)