Gunman who killed 10 at Colorado supermarket in 2021 convicted of murder

DENVER — Rejecting an insanity defense, a Colorado jury on Monday convicted a man diagnosed with the severe mental disorder schizophrenia of first-degree murder in a 2021 mass shooting at a grocery store in the city of Boulder that killed 10 people including a police officer.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 25, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury instead found the Syria-born man guilty in Boulder District Court on 10 counts of first-degree murder. Jurors also found him guilty on dozens of counts of attempted murder and weapons offenses.

In Colorado, a first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“Today, justice is served,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said in a statement.

It was never in dispute that Alissa carried out the rampage. The case focused on his mental state at the time of the shootings. Under Colorado law, a person must be found to be unable to distinguish between right and wrong for an insanity defense to prevail.

Authorities said Alissa was armed with a legally purchased Ruger AR-556 pistol when he entered the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, about 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Denver, on March 22, 2021.

Alissa shot dead two people in the parking lot before entering the store and killing eight others, including a police officer who responded to the shooting.

“He is methodical and he is brutal,” District Attorney Michael Dougherty told jurors in closing arguments.

The psychologists and psychiatrists who testified during the trial agreed that Alissa was diagnosed as a schizophrenic who was profoundly mentally ill. But that diagnosis alone does not render a person legally insane.

“This tragedy was born out of disease not choice,” defense attorney Kathryn Herold told the jury.