Lawyer: Shooting suspect needs mental health review
BOULDER, Colo. — The suspect in the Colorado supermarket shooting appeared in court for the first time Thursday, and a defense attorney immediately asked that he receive a mental health evaluation before the case against him proceeds.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, didn’t speak during the brief hearing except to say yes to a question from the judge, who advised him that he’s charged with murder in the attack that killed 10 people, including a Boulder police officer.
Alissa also is charged with attempted murder. A second police officer was shot at in the confrontation with the suspect but was unhurt.
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said authorities planned to file more charges.
Alissa didn’t enter a plea, which will come later in the judicial process. He has been jailed without bail.
He entered court in a wheelchair, presumably because of a gunshot wound to the leg suffered Monday in a gunbattle with police. He appeared alert, moving his knees from side to side, his eyes darting back and forth from his lawyers to the judge.
His attorney, public defender Kathryn Herold, provided no details about his health. At Herold’s request, Alissa’s next hearing won’t be scheduled
for two to three months to allow the defense to evaluate his mental state and evidence collected by investigators.
“Our position is we cannot do anything until we are able to fully assess Mr. Alissa’s mental illness,” Herold said.
The suspect’s family told investigators they believed Alissa was suffering some type of mental illness, including delusions.
Relatives have described times when he told them people were following or chasing him, which they said may have contributed to the violence, the official said.
Alissa’s legal team includes public defender Daniel King, who represented Colorado theater gunman James Holmes, as well as Robert Dear, who’s accused of killing three people in a 2015 attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, two cases in which mental illness was a factor.
A mentally ill defendant might plead not guilty by reason of insanity, as Holmes did in the 2012 shooting at an Aurora movie theater that left a dozen dead. It would be up to a jury to decide whether the defendant knew right from wrong at the time of the crime — the state’s legal definition of insanity.