The man charged with shooting and killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 had untreated mental illness but was found to be legally sane at the time of the attack, state experts revealed during a court hearing. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who is facing charges for the shooting at a King Soopers store in Boulder, was diagnosed with schizophrenia by the defense team. They stated that auditory hallucinations were a symptom of his mental illness and that the attack would not have happened without it. However, the evaluators were less confident in their conclusion of his sanity, although specific details of their findings were not disclosed.
Prosecutors did not provide any additional information about the evaluation during the court hearing, and District Attorney Michael Dougherty stated that he was limited in what he could comment on publicly. Alissa, who entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, claims that he did not understand the difference between right and wrong at the time of the shooting. Investigators revealed that Alissa had researched how to carry out a mass shooting before his attack and targeted moving people, killing most of the victims in just over a minute using a gun with a high-capacity magazine.
Alissa’s mental health has been a significant issue raised by his lawyers since the shooting, causing a delay in proceedings as his competency to stand trial was evaluated. After being deemed mentally competent, Alissa entered the insanity plea in November. Judge Ingrid Bakke granted the defense’s request for a second evaluation of his sanity at the time of the shooting by their own expert. However, she rejected their proposal to delay the trial until March 2025 and instead scheduled it to start in September 2022, causing objections from relatives of the victims who wanted closure sooner.
Erika Mahoney, whose father was killed in the shooting, spoke during the court hearing, urging the judge to allow the families to move forward and celebrate the upcoming holidays without the trial hanging over them. Despite feeling anxious during the discussion, Mahoney expressed relief that the trial was only delayed by a month, allowing them to see progress in the case. The trial date was set for September 2, 2022, with Alissa’s sanity at the time of the shooting still being a focal point of the legal proceedings.
The case of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa highlights the complexities of mental health and its impact on criminal behavior. As the trial approaches, the focus will likely remain on his mental state at the time of the shooting and whether his untreated mental illness played a significant role in the tragic events that unfolded at the Colorado supermarket. The families of the victims continue to seek closure and justice as they navigate the legal process and await the trial to provide some resolution to the devastating loss they have experienced.
