BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A mentally ill man who killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 was found guilty Monday of murder and faces life in prison.
Defense attorneys have not disputed that Ahmad Alissa, who suffers from schizophrenia, shot and killed 10 people, including a police officer, in the college town of Boulder. But he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanitythe defense claiming he could not distinguish right from wrong at the time of the attack.
In addition to 10 counts of first-degree murder, the jury convicted Alissa of 38 counts of attempted murder, one count of assault and six counts of possession of illegal high-capacity magazines.
In Colorado, first-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence. Sentencing in the case was scheduled for later Monday, when victims and their families were expected to speak in court.
Alissa did not appear to react as the judge began reciting the guilty verdicts against him. He sat at a table with his lawyers and appeared to exchange notes with members of the defense team, sometimes speaking in a whisper with one of his lawyers.
Judge Ingrid Bakke had warned against any outburst of anger. Tears and suppressed sobs were heard from the victims’ side as the murder sentences were read out.
The courtroom was filled largely with victims’ families and police officers, including those targeted by Alissa. Several of Alissa’s family members sat directly behind him.
Nikolena Stanisic, whose only brother, Neven, was killed, recalled going for ice cream with her brother the night before he was shot and how he sometimes helped her pay her bills. She told the court that their home, once filled with talk and laughter, is now almost silent.
“To the person who did this, we hope they suffer for the rest of their life. You are a coward,” Stanisic said. “I hope this haunts the defendant until the end of time. The defendant deserves the worst.”
Alissa began shooting immediately after getting out of his car in the parking lot of a King Soopers store in March 2021. He killed most of the victims in just over a minute and surrendered after a police officer shot him in the leg.
Prosecutors had to prove Alissa was sane. They argued that he did not fire randomly and that he had shown the ability to make decisions by chasing people who were running and trying to hide from him. He twice walked past a 91-year-old man who was still shopping, unaware that gunshots had been fired.
He arrived armed with armor-piercing bullets and illegal magazines that could hold 30 rounds, which prosecutors say shows he took deliberate steps to make the attack as deadly as possible.
Several members of Alissa’s family, A man who immigrated to the United States from Syria testified that he had become withdrawn and less vocal in the years before the shooting. He then began acting paranoid and showed signs of hearing voices, they said, and his condition worsened after he contracted COVID-19 in late 2020.
Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the attack, and experts said the behaviors described by relatives are consistent with the onset of the illness.
State forensic psychologists who examined Alissa concluded that he was sane at the time of the shooting. The defense did not have to provide evidence in the case and did not present any experts to argue that Alissa was insane.
Despite hearing voices, state psychologists said Alissa was not delusional. They said his fear of being imprisoned or killed by police showed Alissa knew his actions were wrong.
Alissa repeatedly told psychologists that he heard voices, including the “killer voices” just before the shooting. But Alissa failed to provide further details about the voices or say whether they were saying anything specific during the six-hour interview, forensic psychologist B. Thomas Gray testified.
The defense noted that Gray and his partner, Loandra Torres, did not have full confidence in their mental health findings, largely because Alissa did not provide more information about her experiences, even though it might have helped her case. Gray and Torres also said the voices played a role in the assault and that they did not believe it would have happened if Alissa had not been mentally ill.
Mental illness is not the same as insanity. Colorado law defines insanity as a mental illness so severe that it is impossible for a person to distinguish right from wrong.
Family members of the victims Survivors attended the two-week trial and viewed surveillance video and police body cameras. Survivors testified about how they fled and, in some cases, helped others reach safety.
Prosecutors have not offered a motive for the shooting. Alissa initially searched the Internet for public places to attack in Boulder, including bars and restaurants, and then, the day before the shooting, focused his search on department stores.
On the day of the attack, he left his home in the Denver suburb of Arvada and stopped at the first supermarket he came across in Boulder. He shot three victims in the parking lot before entering the store.
An emergency room doctor said she crawled onto a shelf and hid among bags of chips. A pharmacist who took cover testified she heard Alissa say, “This is funny,” at least three times as he ran through the store shooting. his semi-automatic pistol which looked like an AR-15 rifle.
Alissa’s mother told the court she thought her son was “sick.” His father testified he thought Alissa was possessed by a djinnor an evil spirit, but he did not seek any treatment for his son because it would have brought shame on the family.
