Accused Colorado supermarket gunman faces additional attempted murder, weapons charges

[April 22, 2021]  By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - Prosecutors on Wednesday charged a 21-year-old man accused of fatally shooting 10 people at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket last month with nearly four dozen additional counts of attempted murder, assault and weapons offenses, court documents showed.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was already charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder stemming from the March 22 shooting rampage at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, about 28 miles northwest of Denver.

Alissa surrendered to law enforcement officers at the crime scene, about 2 miles from the University of Colorado’s flagship campus, after he was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with police, authorities said.

Ten people were killed in the massacre, including a responding Boulder police officer, and authorities have not disclosed a possible motive for the shootings.

Prosecutors added 33 counts of attempted murder, one count of first-degree assault and 10 counts of possession of a large-capacity ammunition magazine, which is illegal under Colorado law.

Authorities earlier said Alissa legally purchased a Ruger AR-556 pistol that he used in the attack.

King Soopers shooting suspect Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, appears before Boulder District Court Judge Thomas Mulvahill at the Boulder County Justice Center in Boulder, Colorado, U.S. March 25, 2021. Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/Pool via REUTERS.

The attempted-murder charges name 18 victims, including many police officers, under different theories of extreme indifference and deliberation.

Alissa is being held without bond at an undisclosed lockup. He was transferred from the Boulder County jail “due to safety concerns and threats,” the sheriff’s office has said.

If convicted of even one count of first-degree murder, Alissa faces a mandatory prison sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

The state public defender’s office, which represents Alissa, does not publicly comment on its cases, but one of his lawyers requested at his initial hearing that Alissa undergo a mental health assessment.

The Colorado incident was among at least seven deadly mass shootings in the United States over the past month.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Steve Gorman, Robert Birsel)

[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.