The gunman who killed 10 people at a grocery store in Colorado has been found guilty of murder | News of the Gunfight

The judge rejects the defense plea that Ahmad Alissa was insane and hearing voices before the 2021 shooting.

A gunman who shot and killed 10 people at a Colorado grocery store in 2021 has been found guilty of murder and could face prison.

On Monday, a jury rejected the defense’s argument that Ahmad Alissa, 25, should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The defense attorney had argued that Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was unable to separate the explanation for her actions when she opened fire at the King Soopers grocery store in downtown Boulder.

“This tragedy was born out of a disease we didn’t choose,” defense attorney Kathryn Herold told the judge during closing arguments.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty, on the other hand, said the nature of the attack shows that Alissa intended her actions.

“He’s methodical and ruthless,” Dougherty told jurors.

Whether Alissa carried out the shooting and the details of the attack were not in question during the trial, which began earlier this month.

Alissa had opened fire as soon as she arrived at the store’s parking lot, killing three people before going inside. He chased several of the shooters and searched for others who were hiding.

Prosecutors pointed to those decisions as evidence that Alissa was acting rationally during the attack. They also said illegal magazines and metal-piercing ammunition Alissa was carrying showed the attack was deliberate.

State psychologists say Alissa’s fear of being arrested or killed by the police indicates she was still sane at the time of the murder. However, the psychologists said they could not give full confidence in their findings – a point taken up by the defence.

Alissa had repeatedly told psychologists that she heard what she described as “murderous voices”, but did not provide further details. Alissa’s family also reported that she had become withdrawn and spoke less, and that she had become increasingly confused and heard voices in the years leading up to the attack. They said he had not received psychiatric treatment before the attack.

Government psychologists also concluded that voices may have played a role in the attack and do not believe it would have happened if he did not have a mental illness.

However, Colorado law draws a distinction between mental illness and insanity. It describes the latter as a mental illness so bad that it is impossible for a person to distinguish between right and wrong.

The verdict closed a trial filled with shocking testimony from survivors of the attack.

One survivor, a local emergency room doctor, said he crawled on a shelf and hid between sacks of potato chips.

A pharmacist at the grocery store testified that he heard Alissa say, “This is good” at least three times as she shot through the entire store with a semi-automatic rifle similar to an AR-15 rifle.

Prosecutors say Alissa, who was born in Syria and immigrated to the US with her family as a child, conducted research on possible attack sites. However, they did not provide any other motivation.