The man accused of the 2021 King Soopers mass shooting in Boulder has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Judge Ingrid Bakke accepted his plea Tuesday morning, after she determined there is probable cause to believe he committed the crimes charged following a hearing. 

But more than two-and-a-half years after the attack, investigators have not identified a motive, beyond statements the defendant made to state doctors that he wanted to commit a mass shooting.

He had no known connections to the store or any of the victims. 

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 24, is accused of killing 10 people on March 22, 2021 at King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. He faces dozens of charges and sentence enhancers, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, counts of attempted murder and charges related to possessing banned high-capacity gun magazines. His defense attorneys have not disputed he was the shooter.

The victims killed were Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Teri Leiker, 51; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; Jody Waters, 65; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; and, Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley. There were no non-fatal shooting victims.

Insanity refers to whether a defendant had the capacity to tell right from wrong at the time of the act they are accused of and the ability form intent. It’s a different issue than competence, which refers to whether the person has the mental fitness to rationally understand the proceedings against them and assist in their own defense.

Suspect in King Soopers shooting in Boulder that killed 10 ruled competent to stand trial

Bakke declared the defendant competent earlier this fall, after he remained mentally unfit for trial for nearly two years. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The attack took just 69 seconds.

Detective Sarah Cantu of the Boulder Police Department revealed details about the shooting in testimony at the defendant’s probable cause hearing.

Frequently punctuated by the sound of his chains jangling as he fidgeted, Cantu spoke about how the shooter zeroed in on each victim and shot them at close range, often as they tried to scramble to safety and hide under registers.

Cantu said the accused shooter killed the first three victims — Stanisic, Mahoney and Bartkowiak — in the store’s parking lot within 33 seconds of each other. She described him choosing “moving targets,” passing people who were still. 

Rikki Olds was the only victim shot just once. 

“He found moving targets, pursued them and shot them until they stopped moving,” she said.

“And in 69 seconds, killed eight people?” asked Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

“Correct,” Cantu replied.

Colorado supermarket shooting suspect pleads not guilty by reason of insanity

Olds’ uncle, Robert Olds, said after Tuesday’s hearing that it was difficult to hear new details about the death of his niece, a manager who was shot right inside the store’s entrance. He hopes a trial will answer some questions about the defendant’s motive, and not knowing has left him twisting in limbo.

“It’s just a cyclical thing inside your head. Why would someone do this? Why was it that King Soopers? Why was my niece working at that time? Why did my niece step toward the door?” he said. 

Suzanne Fountain and Officer Eric Talley were the last two victims killed. Talley was among the first three police officers to enter the store. 

The defendant surrendered when Boulder Police Officer Richard Steidell shot him in the leg. Steidell dropped to the ground when the accused shooter fired at the officers, and shot a round from his handgun as the shooter moved in and out of sight.

The shooter removed all of his clothes, except for his underwear, and placed it in a pile along with his weapons on the floor in one of the store’s aisles. 

Steidell was among the second team of law enforcement officers to go into the store, huddled around a fellow officer’s raised shield as glass exploded around them from gunfire.

The shooter fired at least 47 rounds from the Ruger AR-556 pistol he carried, Cantu said. Investigators found six magazines total in the store and in his car capable of holding 30 rounds. Colorado law bans magazines that hold more than 15. 

“This defendant came armed and ready to kill as many innocent, defenseless and unarmed people as quickly as he could,” Dougherty said in Tuesday’s hearing.

Kathryn Herold, one of the the defendant’s attorneys, questioned Cantu for only about 10 minutes. Bakke did not allow her to ask questions about “odd” things noticed by the shooter’s family in the few years leading up to the shooting attack. Herold argued the questions would speak to her client’s mental state and ability to form intent. 

Court records have revealed the accused shooter bought the pistol legally a few days before the attack. In March, the son of Suzanne Fountain argued in a lawsuit that Ruger has used deceptive marketing practices by giving its AR-556 pistol capabilities to essentially function as a rifle while being regulated as a pistol.

The case accuses the gun maker of marketing the AR-556 varieties as “entry-level” AR-15-style guns and promoting them as weapons specifically for killing people.

Bakke set the accused shooter’s bond at $100 million. Colorado judges can no longer deny bond to defendants accused of first-degree murder. A state Supreme Court decision found that after Colorado’s abolition of the death penalty, language in the state’s Constitution referring to the ability to deny bail for “capital” offenses no longer applies.

She tentatively scheduled jury selection for trial to begin Aug. 8, 2024, pending an evaluation by doctors in light of the defendant’s insanity plea.

Boulder judge hears evidence to determine competency of alleged mass murderer