Timeline: From 2021 Boulder King Soopers mass shooting to trial

DENVER ( KDVR ) — A trial of a man charged in the mass shooting at a Boulder King Soopers in 2021 is underway, with opening arguments heard on Sept. 5, 2024.

Ahmed Al Aliwi Alissa, 25, is accused of shooting and killing nine shoppers and workers inside and outside the store as well as Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, a father of seven and one of the first three police officers who entered the store. The employees and shoppers who lost their lives were identified as Denny Stong, Neven Stanisic, Tralona Bartkowiak, Teri Leiker, Suzanne Fountain, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray, Rikki Olds and Jody Waters.

But after years of hearings and delays, what led to Alissa sitting in a Boulder County courtroom on Sept. 5? Alissa has not denied his part in the deadly grocery store incident, but instead argued that he was mentally incompetent . FOX31 breaks down the timeline from the shooting on March 22, 2021, to the opening arguments on Sept. 5, 2024.

2021: 10 shot dead, including on-duty police officer

March 22, 2021 : At about 2:40 p.m., Boulder police were dispatched to the King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive for an active shooter.

At about 3:28 p.m., Alissa, then 21 years old, was taken into police custody. He had previously been seen wearing blue jeans and a green tactical vest but had stripped to his shorts before his arrest. At about 10 p.m., a search warrant was authorized and officers searched Alissa’s Arvada residence.

March 24, 2021: Alissa is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder.

April 22, 2021: Alissa is charged with 43 new felony counts, including 32 counts of attempted murder, 10 counts of use of a high-capacity magazine and one count of first-degree assault.

May 25, 2021: Alissa is charged with 13 more counts of attempted murder and 47 sentence enhancers for a crime of violence. At this point, Alissa was facing 115 criminal counts, including sentence enhancers.

Sept. 7, 2021 : A sealed motion had been filed on Sept. 1 that found Alissa preliminarily incompetent to stand trial, and the judge ordered Alissa to undergo a mental competency hearing after considering the motions. The judge denied Alissa’s attorney’s request that the hearing be held at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo and ordered the evaluation to take place at the Boulder County Jail. The judge also ordered that the evaluation be completed by Oct. 11, 2021.

Oct. 7, 2021: Judge Ingrid Bakke granted a motion for a second competency evaluation.

Oct. 13, 2021: Judge Bakke ordered Alissa’s lawyers and the prosecutors to agree on four mental health evaluators, of which the court will select one.

Oct. 22, 2021: A mental health evaluator was selected and given 35 days to complete the second evaluation at the Boulder County Jail.

Dec. 3, 2021: Alissa was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial and transferred to the Colorado Mental Health Institute. The court ordered the agency to issue restoration reports every 30 days.

2022: Legal rulings focus on mental competency

April 15, 2022: A judge ruled that Alissa is still mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Oct. 21, 2022: A judge again ruled Alissa is mentally incompetent to stand trial and set another review for January. However, Judge Bakke said he saw substantial probability that Alissa’s mental competency could improve.

2023: Alissa found competent to stand trial

Aug. 23, 2023: Prosecutors announced that Alissa was mentally competent to stand trial based on the reports provided by the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. However, the filing said that Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and to maintain his “tenuous” competency , he was required to have ongoing psychiatric care and medications.

Oct. 6, 2023: A judge ruled that Alissa was mentally competent to stand trial . However, Judge Bakke warned that while Alissa was found competent, “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.” The ruling followed a two-day hearing in September .

Nov. 13, 2023: Judge Bakke ordered Alissa be held on a $100 million bond . At this point, Alissa still had not entered a plea for the charges.

Nov. 14, 2023: Alissa pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. A trial date is tentively set for August 2024.

2024: Case moves toward trial after years of delays

April 26, 2024: Alissa’s attorneys filed a motion for the court to move the trial to a different jurisdiction, arguing that a fair trial would be impossible in Boulder County due to the “massive, pervasive and prejudicial publicity.”

May 6, 2024: Alissa requested a continuation of the three-week jury trial scheduled for Aug. 12, saying that he wanted a sanity evaluation completed by an expert of his choice. However, state experts said he was legally sane at the time of the attack.

June 4, 2024: The court orders that the trial continue in Boulder County.

Aug. 26, 2024: Jury selection begins for the trial , with hundreds of citizens surveyed through questionnaires, before in-person jury selection began on Sept. 2.

Aug. 27, 2024: Prosecutors drop nine counts of attempted first-degree murder and the corresponding sentence enhancers.

Sept. 5, 2024 : Opening arguments are heard by the jury , which was sat on Sept. 4 .

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