Ahmad Alissa: Alleged Boulder shooter to appear in court charged with 10 counts of murder

The suspected shooter has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, the suspected culprit of the King Sooper mass shooting in Boulder Colorado, will make his first court appearance on Thursday.

Mr Alissa was arrested on Monday after allegedly killing 10 people at the grocery store and having a shootout with police.

The suspected shooter has been charged with 10 counts of first degree murder.

In the days following the shooting, insights into the suspected killer have come to light through revelations from his family members and former classmates.

The Daily Beast spoke with Mr Alissa's brother, who called him “very anti-social” and paranoid.

“When he was having lunch with my sister in a restaurant, he said, ‘People are in the parking lot, they are looking for me,’” the brother, Ali Aliwi Alissa, 34, said. “She went out, and there was no one. We didn’t know what was going on in his head.”

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The brother said the suspected shooter became more paranoid around 2014, prompting concern from his siblings.

“We kept a close eye on him when he was in high school. He would say, ‘Someone is chasing me, someone is investigating me.’ And we’re like, ‘Come on man. There’s nothing.’ ... He was just closing into himself,” the brother said.

He said his brother had previously been outgoing, but turned anti-social after he was subjected to bullying in high school. He does not believe his brother’s alleged attack was a political statement of any kind.

“[It was] not at all a political statement, it’s mental illness,” he said. “The guy used to get bullied a lot in high school, he was like an outgoing kid but after he went to high school and got bullied a lot, he started becoming anti-social.”

CNN reported that the family emigrated to the US from Syria in 2002.

Mr Alissa's brother lamented the shooting, saying he was shocked it occurred.

According to local news reports, the Alissa family operated a number of successful Middle Eastern food restaurants.

The suspected shooter was charged with third degree assault and was sentenced to two months of probation and 48 hours of community service.

The Denver Post also spoke with several of the suspected shooter's former wrestling teammates, who said Mr Alissa was prone to outbursts and, at least on one occasion, was violent.

Another teammate, Angel Hernandez, said the suspected shooter was so furious that he got into a fist fight following the match after another wrestler teased him. He recalled Mr Alissa becoming increasingly anti-social over the three years he knew him, and said he would be generally calm until something set him off.

“If something made him mad, within a split second, he’d change,” Mr Hernandez said. “When he got mad, it was scary, I won’t lie.”

He said he recently ran into Mr Alissa at a restaurant and said he seemed “100 per cent fine.”

Mr Marvel also recalled Mr Alissa frequently having bouts of paranoia, claiming people were targeting him for harassment because he was Muslim.

“He would talk about him being Muslim and how if anybody tried anything, he would file a hate crime and say they were making it up,” Mr Marvel said. “It was a crazy deal. I just know he was a pretty cool kid until something made him mad, and then whatever made him mad, he went over the edge — way too far.”

The Washington Post spoke to another classmate who described Mr Alissa as a very solitary individual, enough so that they tried to include him in activities.

“In high school, he didn’t really have a lot of friends, and that’s why [the other student] and I tried to reach out and make him welcome,” said the classmate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “He was alone and he was just kind of shy.”

Investigators who spoke with the suspected shooter said they were still collecting statements, but confirmed he has lived the majority of his life in the US.

Facebook confirmed it deleted a profile belonging to an “Ahmad Al Issa” who was born in 1999 in Syria, and was a wrestler at Arvada West High School.

A number of posts on the profile suggest he was interested in martial arts, wrestling and kickboxing. Mr Alissa apparently studied computer engineering at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Some posts expressed his interest in Islam and showed he opposed same-sex marriage.

Another post from when the suspected shooter was in high school, he seemed to believe that he was being stalked.

In the post, he said he thought his targeting was “part racism for sure” but added “I also believe someone spread rumours about me which are false.”

In 2019, he openly wondered if his school was hacking into his phone.

“Just curious what are the laws about phone privacy because I believe my old school (a west) was hacking my phone,” Mr Alissa wrote.

The page was deleted within an hour of Mr Alissa being named the shooter.

Mr Alissa is currently being held in the Boulder County Jail. Investigators believe he acted alone in the attack.

Following the shooting, police conducted a search of Mr Alissa’s home, where they found other weapons.

According to a police affidavit, just as officers arrived, they intercepted a woman leaving the house. The woman said she had recently married one of Mr Alissa’s relatives, and told detectives that she saw the suspected shooter playing with a “machine gun” inside the house two days prior.

The gun used in the attack, an AR-15-style pistol modified with an arm brace, was purchased six days before the attack.

Police have not yet identified a motive in the shooting.

“Regarding the suspect, at approximately 2:40 P.M. Monday, March 22, officers were dispatched to Kings Soopers. They arrived on the scene within minutes and immediately entered the store and engaged the suspect. There was an exchange of gunfire. The suspect was shot and a number of other officers were injured,” Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said.

The police chief said her department was working with state and federal authorities to continue the investigation.

“We’re committed with state, local, and federal authorities for a thorough investigation and we’ll bring justice to each of these families,” she said.

The victims of the King Sooper mass shooting in Colorado have also been identified by police.

The 10 victims were identified in the early morning hours of Tuesday by the Boulder County Coroner’s office. The victims of the shooting have been identified as:

Denny Stong, 20; Nevin Stanasic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Eric Talley, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; Jody Waters, 65.

One of the victims, Boulder Police Department officer Eric Talley, was killed in the attack. He was the first officer on scene after the attack began.

Another victim was found in a car in the parking lot. The individual apparently was parked next to the shooter when he arrived.

Ms Herold said Mr Talley had seven children. “Our hearts go out to all the victims killed during this senseless act of violence,” Ms Herold said.