The man accused of killing 10 people at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder nearly three years ago targeted and pursued each individual victim he killed, a detective testified Tuesday during a preliminary hearing.
“There was not indiscriminate shooting, they were identified and pursued by the shooter, who moved quickly and fired repeatedly at them,” Boulder police detective Sarah Cantu testified in Boulder County District Court.
The suspected shooter, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 24, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at the conclusion of his preliminary hearing Tuesday, after District Judge Ingrid Bakke found there was enough evidence against him to allow the case to proceed.
Alissa is charged with carrying out the mass shooting on March 22, 2021, at the Table Mesa King Soopers and faces 10 counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of attempted murder and numerous additional charges in connection with the attack.
Bakke allowed all charges to go forward against Alissa except for four counts of carrying illegally large ammunition magazines. She dismissed those four counts after prosecutors said Alissa was carrying only six such illegal magazines, not 10.
Bakke also set Alissa’s bail at $100 million. All defendants in Colorado are now entitled to bail after a June decision by the Colorado Supreme Court.
“He was hunting”
On the day of the attack, Alissa opened fire just before 2:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the grocery store with a Ruger AR-556 “AR-15-style rifle,” Cantu testified. He also carried a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, though police have said they don’t believe Alissa ever fired the 9 mm gun.
The first eight victims — three outside the store and five inside — were shot and killed in 69 seconds, and another 14 people were shot at during that minute and nine seconds, Cantu said. Inside the store, the attacker pursued people as they ran and tried to escape, the detective said.
She was the sole witness to take the stand Tuesday.
Cantu described how the suspect, who she identified as Alissa, shot one man in the back, and then followed the man as he crawled between two checkout lines to try to get away.
“He pursued him and shot him while he was on the ground,” Cantu said.
Another woman crawled to a self-checkout machine after she was shot in a main aisle and hid under the machine, Cantu said.
“She crawled under the machine and curled up in the fetal position in a ball,” Cantu testified.
The shooter followed her, paused briefly to shoot at two fleeing customers, then approached the hiding woman, stood over her and shot her multiple times, killing her, the detective testified.
Customers and employees either ran or hid during the attack. One man crawled into store shelving and covered himself with bags of chips, Cantu testified. Another store employee helped evacuate two different groups of people, returning to the store twice before he was shot at but not hit.
All but one of the victims who were killed were shot multiple times, Cantu testified.
Alissa walked around the store apparently looking for additional people to target after the initial burst of violence, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in court Tuesday.
“He was hunting,” Dougherty said.
In one instance, Alissa approached a man who was shopping in an aisle — the shopper was apparently oblivious to the ongoing mass shooting and had not run. Alissa raised his rifle and pointed it at the man for a moment, then lowered the gun and did not fire, Cantu testified.
She said on cross-examination that she did not know why Alissa did not fire at the shopper.
“He was specifically targeting moving people,” she said.
“He focused on particular people in his line of sight, then he moved in with the intent to kill each and every one,” Dougherty said.
Alissa did not appear to show emotion during the hearing, where he sat shackled and handcuffed with his defense attorneys, frequently shifting in his seat and jerking his eyebrows up and down.
Some of the survivors of the attack and the families of the victims cried quietly as Cantu methodically described how each of the 10 victims was killed.
Those killed in the shooting: Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Teri Leiker, 51; Boulder police Officer Eric Talley, 51; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65.
Competency vs. insanity
The criminal case against Alissa, who has schizophrenia, stalled for nearly two years after he was found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial in December 2021. He was ruled to be competent in October, allowing Tuesday’s preliminary hearing to take place and the case to move forward.
Competency is a separate legal issue from insanity. Competency considers whether Alissa can currently understand court proceedings and assist in his own defense, while insanity looks back at his mental state at the time of the crime.
A defendant is not guilty by reason of insanity if he was so mentally ill when he committed the crime that he could not tell right from wrong. Defendants who are found not guilty by reason of insanity are committed to a state mental health hospital for treatment, and can later be released if they are deemed to be recovered. If Alissa is convicted of first-degree murder, he would be sentenced to life in prison.
Alissa will now go through an evaluation to consider whether he was insane at the time of the crime, and will return to court in January. A jury trial was tentatively scheduled for mid-August.
In court Tuesday, Dougherty said authorities never found any motive for the mass shooting, any connection between Alissa and his victims, or any ties between Alissa and the grocery store. A psychologist involved in Alissa’s mental health treatment previously testified that he spoke about wanting to “commit suicide by cop” and carry out a mass shooting.
Alissa’s public defender on Tuesday sought to bring in evidence about his mental illness and state of mind during the attack, but Bakke did not allow her to do so during the preliminary hearing, finding it was not relevant.
“Cold, calculated actions”
Dougherty said there is evidence that Alissa prepared for the attack for some time, including notes on his iPhone about specific rifle components and tips on how to run and shoot. He also visited a shooting range before the attack and, in February 2021, conducted a Google search about how to turn a semi-automatic rifle into a fully automatic weapon.
Robert Olds, uncle to victim Rikki Olds, said after the hearing that not knowing the motive for the attack is difficult, and that he’s sure Alissa was not insane during the killings.
“I know he wasn’t insane at the time he did this, by his cold, calculated actions that day,” he said, adding that he did not believe the $100 million bail was high enough.
“What price do you put on your loved one’s murder?” he asked. “Is $10 million a victim enough? Not in my opinion.”
Alissa bought firearms and ammunition between January and March 16, 2021, Dougherty said in court. Much of the attack was captured on surveillance video, which Dougherty did not show in court Tuesday.
He instead displayed several photos as exhibits during the hearing, including one that showed the piling of belongings Alissa left behind after he was shot in the leg by police, when he stripped down to his underwear before surrendering.
The photo showed his shoes, socks, shirt and jeans, as well as guns, ammunition, a green vest for carrying ammunition and a holster, on top of a blood-smeared floor and a smattering of bloody footprints.
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