Jury seated in King Soopers mass shooting trial; opening arguments expected Thursday

DENVER (KDVR) — A 12-person jury was sat Wednesday in the trial of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, the man accused of killing 10 people at a Boulder King Soopers in 2021.

Jurors are set to hear opening arguments for the case on Thursday at 9 a.m. Alissa and his attorneys have not disputed that he was the shooter; instead, they’ve argued he is not mentally competent and is not able to understand legal proceedings.

However, after Alissa was medicated, a judge ruled in October that Alissa was mentally competent and proceedings resumed.

The suspect has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, an evaluation conducted at a state mental hospital found Alissa was legally sane at the time of the attack, and evaluators also said the attack would not have happened if Alissa had been mentally well.

Alissa is facing 10 counts of first-degree murder and 15 counts of attempted murder and other offenses, including having six high-capacity magazines for the guns used in the shooting. Investigators said during court hearings that Alissa had kept notes in his cellphone for months prior to the shooting about guns and how to move and shoot people.

The closest thing to a possible motive revealed so far was when a mental health evaluator testified during a competency hearing last year that Alissa said he bought firearms to carry out a mass shooting and suggested that he wanted police to kill him.

Jury selection began Monday, Aug. 26, with questionnaire screenings and transitioned to in-person selection. The jury was officially sat on Wednesday at about 4 p.m., and the trial is projected to last through the middle of the month.

Prosecutors will seek to prove that Alissa, of Arvada, was sane when he drove the 15 miles to the Boulder store, attempting to convince jurors that the man knew what he was doing and intended to kill the people in the store.

The defense argued in a court filing that Alissa’s relatives said he irrationally believed that the FBI was following him and that he would talk to himself as if he were talking to someone who was not there. However, prosecutors point out Alissa was never previously treated for mental illness and was able to work up to 60 hours a week leading up to the shooting, something they say would not have been possible for someone severely mentally ill.

Several of Alissa’s relatives are listed as potential witnesses for the defense during the trial.

Both sides will rely on experts to testify about his sanity, possibly including videos of their interviews with Alissa, said defense lawyer Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor and University of Denver law professor.

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