Trial of man who killed ten people in a Colorado supermarket ends with closing arguments

DENVER (AP) — On Friday, lawyers will make their closing arguments in the trial of a mentally ill man who shot and killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021.

Ahmad Alissa, who suffers from schizophrenia, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyers admit he was the shooter but say he was insane at the time of the shooting.

Insanity is not the same thing as mental illness under the law. In Colorado, insanity is legally defined as a mental illness so severe that a person can no longer distinguish between right and wrong.

During the two-week trial, families of those killed watched graphic surveillance footage and police bodycam video. Survivors testified how they fled, helped others get to safety and hid. An emergency room doctor crawled onto a shelf and hid among bags of chips. A pharmacist who took cover testified she heard Alissa say “This is fun” at least three times.

Several members of Alissa’s family, who immigrated to the U.S. from Syria, testified that he had become withdrawn and spoke less for several years. He later began acting paranoid and showed signs of hearing voices. His condition worsened after he contracted COVID-19 in late 2020, they said.

Alissa is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of attempted murder and other crimes, including possession of six pistols containing large-caliber ammunition, which were banned in Colorado after previous mass shootings.

Alissa began shooting immediately after getting out of his car at the store on March 22, 2021, killing most of the victims in just over a minute. He killed a police officer who responded to the attack and then surrendered after another officer shot him in the leg.

Prosecutors said Alissa was equipped with a scope for his semi-automatic pistol, which resembled an AR-15 rifle, and steel-piercing bullets.

They accused him of trying to kill as many people as possible by chasing people who were fleeing and trying to hide. This gave him an adrenaline rush and a feeling of power, prosecutors argued, although they did not give a motive for the attack.

State forensic psychologists who examined Alissa concluded that he was mentally healthy at the time of the shooting. The defense was not required to present evidence in the case, nor did it present any experts who could prove his mental illness.

However, the defense pointed out that the psychologists did not have complete confidence in their determination that he was mentally healthy, primarily because Alissa did not give them any further information about his experiences, even though it could have helped his case.

The experts also said that they believe the voices he heard played a role in the attack and that they believe it would not have happened if Alissa had not been mentally ill.

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