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A judge ruled Friday that a man accused of killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket last year is still mentally unfit to stand trial, further delaying the court case in the case.
The prosecution of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, has been suspended since December when Judge Ingrid Bakke ruled that he was mentally incompetent – unable to understand court proceedings and work with his lawyers to defend himself.
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The ruling came almost a month after Boulder, home of the University of Colorado, marked the first anniversary of the attack that killed workers, customers and a police officer who stormed into the store. Alissa was not in court at Friday’s hearing.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, the man accused of killing several people at a Colorado supermarket in March 2021, is led into a courtroom for a hearing on September 7, 2021 in Boulder, Colorado. A judge ruled on Friday, April 15, 2022 that Alissa, who was accused of killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket last year, is still mentally unfit to stand trial, bringing the court case in further delayed in this case.
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski, Pool, File)
Few details have been released about Alissa’s condition. Reports of his reviews aren’t available to the public, but in a court filing discussing one of last year’s reviews, he was tentatively diagnosed with an unspecified mental illness that limits his ability to “make meaningful connections with others.” to chat”.
In December, one of Alissa’s attorneys, Kathryn Herold, said her client had a “serious” mental illness, but didn’t elaborate. At the time, District Attorney Michael Dougherty said Alissa had “deteriorated” during her incarceration over the past few months.
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Investigators have not released any information as to why they believe Alissa launched the attack or why he may have targeted the supermarket. He lived in the neighboring suburb of Arvada, where authorities say he passed a background check to legally purchase the Ruger AR-556 pistol he allegedly used six days before the shooting.
Competency is a different legal issue than a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which is whether someone’s mental health was incapable of discerning right from wrong at the time a crime was committed.
The judge set a hearing for July 21 to re-evaluate Alissa’s suitability to stand trial.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa listens during a hearing in Boulder, Colorado on September 7, 2021. A judge ruled on Friday, April 15, 2022 that Alissa, who was accused of killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket last year, is still mentally incapable of standing the trial, which is the court case in the case further delayed.
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski, Pool, File)
The March 22, 2021 attack on a grocery store in King Soopers shocked a state that has seen its share of mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the 2012 Aurora theater shooting.
Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, a 51-year-old father of seven, was shot and killed while storming into the store with a first team of police officers. The nine others killed inside and outside the supermarket were Denny Stong, Neven Stanisic, Rikki Olds, Tralona Bartkowiak, Teri Leiker, Suzanne Fountain, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray and Jody Waters.
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Stong, Olds and Leiker worked at the supermarket.
The remodeled King Soopers reopened in February, with about half of those who worked there at the time of filming returning.