BOULDER, Co. –
A man accused of killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket nearly two years ago remains mentally incompetent to stand trial, a judge said Friday.
Court proceedings against 23-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa were halted for more than a year after Judge Ingrid Bakke first found he had an intellectual disability in December 2021 and brought him down. He went to the state mental hospital for treatment.
During a brief hearing Friday in Boulder, Bakke said a new report from the hospital reached the same conclusion. The doctors added in the report that they still think Alissa has a “reasonable ability” to achieve capacity, Bakke said.
She did not elaborate on the report, which is not publicly available. His defense was concerned about Alissa’s mental health shortly after the March 2021 shootings, but details have not been made public.
Court documents referring to one of his assessments in 2021 said he was provisionally diagnosed with an unspecified mental health condition, limiting his ability to “have meaningful conversations.” mean to others”.
Alissa was not in the courtroom on Friday. He was charged with murder and multiple counts of attempted murder for endangering the lives of 26 others. He has yet to be asked to provide a defense and his attorney has not commented on the allegations.
These brief hearings are held periodically to check whether the doctors believe Alissa can understand the legal procedures and work with his attorney to defend himself. Competence is a different legal issue than pleading guilty by reason of insanity, which concerns whether a person’s mental health prevents them from understanding right from wrong when committing a crime.
Alissa is charged with shooting outside and inside a King Soopers store in the college town of Boulder, killing customers, workers and a police officer who rushed in to try to stop the attack. Alissa, who lives in the nearby suburb of Arvada, surrendered after another officer shot and wounded him, authorities said.
Investigators have not revealed a possible motive. They said Alissa legally passed a background check to purchase a Ruger AR-556 pistol six days before shooting.
