King Soopers shooting trial expected to focus on killer's competency

A man sitting in his van after repairing a coffee machine at a supermarket in the college town of Boulder was the first to die. Within just over a minute, nine more people died in 2021 in a volley of gunfire inside and outside the store as the gunman targeted and pursued people on the move.

Survivors fled from the back of the store to avoid the bullets. Others hid on shelves, at cash registers and in offices for over an hour.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, then 21, turned himself in after a police officer shot him in the leg in the store. He came out wearing only his underwear and repeatedly told the police to call his mother. His lawyers do not dispute that he was the shooter.

But the reason for the massacre remains unknown as his trial is scheduled to begin this week.

The only possible motive that has emerged so far comes from the testimony of a psychiatric expert during a competency hearing last year that Alissa said he had purchased firearms to commit a massacre and implied he wanted to be killed by police.

Robert Olds, whose 25-year-old niece Rikki Olds was the manager who shot Alissa at point blank range near the entrance, plans to sit in his usual front-row seat throughout the trial. At times he wished Alissa had simply died in the attack. But he still hoped that one day he would learn why his niece, who was known for her sense of humor and outspoken personality, and the others were killed. His hope for that has since diminished, but he is sure Alissa knew what he was doing.

“I hope he spends the rest of his life in prison and then serves the real punishment when he stands before God and has to answer for the murder of ten people,” he said.

The trial is expected to focus primarily on Alissa's mental state at the time of the shooting. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyers argue he should be acquitted because his mental illness prevents him from distinguishing between right and wrong.

The defense argued in a court document that his relatives said he irrationally believed the FBI was following him and that he would talk to himself as if he was speaking to someone who wasn't there. But prosecutors point out that Alissa had never been treated for mental illness before and was able to work up to 60 hours a week before the shooting, something they said would have been impossible for someone with a serious mental illness.

Alissa is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, 15 counts of attempted murder and other offenses, including possession of six pistols containing large-caliber ammunition, which were banned in Colorado after previous mass shootings.

Alissa's trial was postponed because experts repeatedly found him unable to understand the legal proceedings and assist his defense. But when Alissa's condition improved after being forced to take medication, Judge Ingrid Bakke ruled in October that he was mentally competent and allowed the trial to resume.

The burden of proving his sanity is on prosecutors to show Alissa knew what he was doing and intended to kill people in the store.

The defense has questioned why Alissa drove past a King Soopers store near his home in the Denver suburb of Arvada and instead drove about 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the chain's store in Boulder, a city he had never visited before the shooting.

Prosecutors have presented evidence that in the months before the shooting, Alissa had researched how to move and shoot an assault rifle and which bullets are most deadly. A court document noted, without further explanation, that he was looking for information about the “Christ Church attacks,” an apparent reference to a white nationalist's live-streamed shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which 51 people were killed in 2019.

Alissa immigrated from Syria with his family as a toddler. He lived with his family in Arvada, where they owned a restaurant.

The only known problem Alissa had before the shooting was an incident in high school in 2018, when he was convicted of assaulting a fellow student, according to police documents. A former classmate also told the Associated Press that Alissa was kicked off the wrestling team after yelling that he was going to kill everyone following a loss in a practice match.

A sister-in-law who lived in Alissa's home told police he had been playing with what she thought was a “machine gun” two days before the shooting before two relatives took it away from him, court documents show.

Several of Alissa's relatives are listed as possible defense witnesses during the trial. Potential jurors will be questioned starting Tuesday, with opening statements expected before the end of the week.

Both sides will rely on experts to testify about his sanity and possibly videotaped interviews with Alissa, said defense attorney Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor and law professor at the University of Denver.

If jurors are not convinced that Alissa was insane, they could also consider whether his mental illness prevented him from acting thoughtfully and intentionally and find him guilty of first-degree murder instead, she said.