Colorado Supermarket Shooter found Guilty of Murder

Jurors on Monday found the gunman who shot and killed 10 people at a Colorado grocery store in 2021 guilty of 10 counts of first-degree murder.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, now 25, was also found guilty on several additional charges in the mass shooting, which was livestreamed by witnesses and broadcast on YouTube.

Alissa never denied he was the shooter, but pled not guilty by reason of insanity.
Jurors determined, though, he was legally sane at the time of the attack.

Alissa killed the victims, who ranged in age from 20 to 65 and who included one police officer, during an hours-long stand-off at one of the stores in the popular Colorado grocery chain, King Soopers.

Shoppers and employers at the store had to dive for cover or run for safety after the shooting began.

He was held without bail and had been granted a mental health hearing requested by his defence lawyer.

Alissa faces life in prison and was due to be sentenced later on Monday.

His attorneys said he was suffering from mental illness on the day of the shooting and unable to tell right from wrong during the attack.

The Associated Press reported he was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the shooting.

His lawyers also said he had heard voices instructing him to carry out the attack, according to the Denver Post.
But for Alissa to be found not guilty by insanity, he had to prove he did not understand he was doing something wrong at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutors argued that purchasing the gun and bullets, researching locations, and then deciding to chase some victims were all proof that Alissa was aware of what he was doing.
Over the course of 10 days, witnesses at the store testified before the jury as well as police officers who responded to the shooting.
The jury found Alissa, a Syrian-born US citizen, guilty on all 10 counts as well as 38 charges of attempted murder, one count of assault and six counts of possessing large-capacity magazines, the AP reported

The attack at the grocery store, located in the city of Boulder, about 30 miles (50km) from the state’s capital of Denver, took place less than one week after another mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight dead.

—Source: BBC

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