On Monday, March 22, there was a shooting at a Colorado supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. The suspect in custody is 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa. He is from Arvada which is a Denver suburb. The following day Alissa was processed into jail on murder charges. He will face ten murder charges when appearing in court for the first time on Thursday morning. Alissa bought the weapon he used in the attack six days before the attack happened. This isn’t the first time that he has been in trouble with the law. In 2018 he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. He paid a fine to resolve the case and that was the end of that case. When detectives went to Alissa’s home after the shooting they found his sister-in-law who said he has been playing with a gun that looked like a “machine gun” about two days before.

On Thursday, March 25, Alissa was in front of a judge for the first time since the shooting in Boulder. The defense attorney said that the mental illness of Alissa can’t be fully assessed. The Boulder County District Attorney, Michael Dougherty, said that more charges are likely to come in the coming two weeks. State District Judge, Thomas Mulvahill, ordered Alissa to be held without bail and said his hearing is no sooner than in 60 days. Alissa could use the mental health defense but in the case of the Aurora movie theater shooting in 2012, the shooter did have documented mental health issues but was still convicted of all murder charges.