Boulder mourns victims of grocery store shooting as suspect faces first court hearing Thursday
BOULDER, Colo. – Hours after an emotional vigil for the victims, the Colorado man accused of fatally shooting 10 people in a supermarket faces his first court appearance Thursday.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, will appear in person before District Judge Thomas Francis Mulvahill unless Alissa waives his rights to do so. He won’t be asked to enter a plea yet but will be advised of the charges he faces and his rights as a defendant. He has been assigned a public defender and faces 10 counts of first-degree murder.
Alissa, a resident of the Denver suburb of Arvada, on Monday afternoon went to the King Soopers in Boulder – about 20 miles away – with two guns, according to an arrest affidavit. He had bought a semiautomatic firearm less than a week before the shootings, authorities say.
Alissa was shot in the leg and taken from the scene via ambulance. He was hospitalized overnight before being booked into county jail.
Investigators have yet to determine, or at least reveal, the motive for the attack.
The Boulder victims were identified as Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Eric Talley, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jodi Waters, 65.
Family said Alissa has ‘mental illness’: Experts say that’s rarely the cause of mass shootings
Talley, a father of seven, was the first police officer to respond to the panicked 911 calls as Monday’s shooting played out at the King Soopers supermarket. On Wednesday, hundreds of police officers and residents lined streets to pay respects to Talley, whose hearse slowly rolled through the streets in a procession from the coroner’s office in Boulder to a funeral home in Aurora.
“Thank you to everyone who lined the roadways, overpasses and more this afternoon to show your support,” the police department tweeted. “Words can’t express just how much this meant to us #BoulderStrong”
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