Police: Accused man prone to rage
The 21-year-old held in Colorado shooting was suspended from high school for attacking a classmate.
BOULDER, Colo. — Law enforcement officials and former associates of a 21-year-old man accused of killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket have described the suspect as prone to sudden rage and disclosed that he was suspended from high school several years ago for an attack on a classmate that left the student bloodied.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, from the Denver suburb of Arvada, was booked into jail Tuesday on murder charges a day after the attack at a King Soopers grocery in Boulder and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday.
He will be advised at the hearing of the murder charges he will face and his rights as a defendant. He won’t be asked to enter a plea until later.
No lawyer was listed for Alissa in court records. Public defenders usually represent people who do not have an attorney at their first court appearance, but defenders’ office policy prohibits them from speaking to the media.
When Alissa was a high school senior in 2018, he was found guilty of assaulting a fellow student in class after knocking him to the floor, climbing on top of him and punching him in the head several times, according to a police affidavit.
Alissa “got up in classroom, walked over to the victim & ‘cold cocked’ him in the head,” the affidavit said.
Alissa complained that the student had made fun of him and called him “racial names” weeks earlier, the affidavit said.
An Arvada police report said the victim was bloodied and vomiting after the assault.
Alissa was suspended from school and sentenced to probation and community service.
One of his former high school wrestling teammates, Angel Hernandez, said Alissa became enraged after losing a match during practice, letting out a stream of invectives and yelling that he would kill everyone.
Alissa’s coach kicked him off the team because of the outburst, Hernandez said.
“He was one of those guys with a short fuse,” Hernandez said. “Once he gets mad, it’s like something takes over and it’s not him. There is no stopping him at that point.”
Hernandez said Alissa also acted strangely at times, turning around suddenly or glancing over his shoulder.
“He would say, ‘Did you see that? Did you see that?’ ” Hernandez recalled. “We wouldn’t see anything. We always thought he was messing with us.”
Arvada police investigated but dropped a separate criminal mischief complaint involving Alissa in 2018, said Detective David Snelling. Alissa also was cited for speeding in February.
Relatives of Alissa told investigators that they believed he suffered from some type of mental illness, had delusions and that he told them people were chasing or following him.
A relative of a grocery worker who died in the shooting said Wednesday that he and his family were trying to take in that she’s gone.
Rikki Olds, 25, was slain Monday inside the King Soopers store in Boulder.
Her uncle, Robert Olds, told reporters that she was an ebullient soul who wanted to be a nurse. Her backup plan was to work her way up to store manager.
“Rikki lived life on her own terms,” Robert Olds said, recalling how she constantly changed her hair color or sported a new tattoo. “It’s sad in that she didn’t get to experience motherhood. She didn’t get to experience marriage . ... There’s a hole in our family that won’t be filled.”
The other dead victims were identified as Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Eric Talley, 51; Teri Leiker, 51; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jodi Waters, 65.
Leiker and Stong also worked at the supermarket, former co-worker Jordan Sailas said. Talley was a police officer who responded to emergency calls that a gunman was inside the store.
According to an arrest affidavit, Alissa bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol, which is technically a pistol though it resembles an AR-15 rifle with a slightly shorter stock, March 16, six days before the attack. Investigators have not established a motive, said Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.
Authorities have not disclosed where the gun was purchased. An AR-15style rifle was recovered inside the supermarket and believed to have been used in the shooting, said a law enforcement official briefed on the shooting who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A tactical vest and a handgun were also recovered inside the grocery store after the suspect removed most of his clothing shortly before he was taken into custody.
Meanwhile, hundreds have paid their respects to the victims at a growing makeshift memorial near the supermarket, adorning it with wreaths, candles, banners reading “#Boulderstrong,” and 10 crosses with blue hearts and the victims’ names.
Monday’s attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., following the March 16 shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area spa businesses, according to a database compiled by the AP, USA Today and Northeastern University.