Gunman Ahmad Alissa, who killed 10 at Colorado supermarket, found guilty of murder

BOULDER, Colo.— A mentally ill man who killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 was convicted Monday of murder and faces life in prison.Defense attorneys did not dispute that Ahmad Alissa, who has schizophrenia, fatally shot 10 people including a police officer in the college town of Boulder.

But he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with the defense arguing he couldn’t tell right from wrong at the time of the attack.Alissa did not visibly react as the judge began reciting the jury’s guilty verdicts against him.He sat at a table with his attorneys and appeared to trade notes with members of the defense team, speaking quietly at times with one of his attorneys.Judge Ingrid Bakke had warned against any outbursts.

There were some tears and restrained crying on the victims’ side of the courtroom as the murder convictions were read.The courtroom was packed largely with victims’ families and police officers, including those who were shot at by Alissa.Several members of Alissa’s family sat just behind him.Alissa started shooting immediately after getting out of his car in a King Soopers store parking lot in March 2021.

He killed most of the victims in just over a minute and surrendered after an officer shot him in the leg.Prosecutors had to prove Alissa was sane.They argued he didn’t fire randomly and showed an ability to make decisions by pursuing people who were running and trying to hide from him.

He twice passed by a 91-year-old man who continued to shop, unaware of the shooting.He came armed with steel-piercing bullets and illegal magazines that can hold 30 rounds of ammunition, which prosecutors said showed he took deliberate steps to make the attack as deadly as possible.Several members of Alissa’s family, who immigrated to the United States from Syria, testified that he had become withdrawn and spoke less a few years before the shooting.He later began acting paranoid and showed signs of hearing voices, they said, and his cond...