After more than a week of jury selection, opening statements are scheduled to begin Thursday morning in the long-delayed trial for the man charged with killing 10 people in the 2021 mass shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 25, is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of King Soopers shoppers, employees and a responding Boulder police officer, as well as more than 100 other charges tied to the attack at the Table Mesa store.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning that his attorneys do not contest that he carried out the mass shooting, but they say he should not be held legally responsible because he was so mentally ill at the time of the killings that he could not tell right from wrong.
The trial comes after years of delays because Alissa was too mentally ill to participate in his own defense — a different question than his mental state during the shooting. The trial now will focus on Alissa’s mental state at the time of the attack, rather than whether or not he carried out the shooting.
Those killed in the March 22, 2021, 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.
The trial is expected to last several weeks and is being streamed live via Webex.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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