Boulder supermarket shooting suspect declared competent to stand trial

Ahmad al Aliwi Alissa, the suspect in the 2021 supermarket shooting in Boulder, Colorado, will stand trial.

Alissa, 24, was diagnosed with schizophrenia after his capture and has been in the Colorado Mental Health Institute since December 2021. Boulder County District Judge Ingrid Bakke ruled Friday that his treatment there has helped him progress to the point of being competent to stand trial. Previous to his time at the CMHI, Alissa was declared unfit for trial.

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“The Court notes that, though Defendant is currently competent to proceed, all of his treatment providers and evaluators agree that his competency remains tenuous and that he is likely to rapidly decompensate and regress if he stops taking his medication,” Bakke wrote in her ruling.

As a result, CMHI has agreed to keep Alissa in its facility while he awaits trial. Alissa himself reportedly said in June that if he were sent back to jail, he would stop taking his medications. This facility has had to “physically force” Alissa to take his medications.

Alissa’s brother, Ali Aliwi Alissa, described his younger brother as “very anti-social” and paranoid since high school. He blamed bullying at the school for negatively affecting his younger brother.

Now Alissa is facing charges of 10 felony counts of murder in the first degree, 47 felony counts of attempted murder in the first degree, one felony count of assault in the first degree, 10 felony counts of possession of a large-capacity magazine during the commission of a felony, and 47 counts of crime of violence with a semiautomatic assault weapon as a sentence enhancer.

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Victims of the attack, which included nine shoppers and one police officer, were later identified as Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; police officer Eric Talley, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65. Alissa surrendered to police while suffering a gunshot wound to the leg.

Alissa is next due in court on Nov. 14 for a preliminary hearing.