Opening statements on the road in Boulder

A man holds a gun over a cringing woman at a supermarket checkout. Three police officers duck as bullets explode glass above their heads. A mentally disabled man stares confusedly at a bloodied body.

Prosecutors on Thursday showed jurors image after image of the mass shooting at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder during opening statements in the long-delayed jury trial of 25-year-old suspect Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who is accused of killing 10 people on March 22 . , 2021, attack.

Alissa’s lawyers do not dispute that he carried out the mass shooting. But Alissa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming he should not be held legally responsible for the murders because he was so mentally ill at the time of the murders that he could not tell right from wrong, or so mentally ill was that he couldn’t. form the intention to carry out the massacre.

Alissa has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and began experiencing symptoms in his late teens, including hearing voices, experiencing visual hallucinations and feelings of paranoia, attorney Samuel Dunn said. Alissa believed he was being followed by the FBI, Dunn told jurors.

“Prior to the offense, and on the day of the shooting, Mr. Alissa was in the throes of a psychotic episode,” Dunn said.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told jurors Thursday that Alissa was sane during the attack, pointing to Alissa’s months of planning, preparation and practice, the lethality of the attack and Alissa’s surrender to law enforcement as evidence of his sanity.

Alissa, who lived in Arvada, began researching mass shootings in January 2021, Dougherty said. He viewed more than 6,000 images of weapons, ammunition and equipment on his phone between January and March, including 400 photos of bomb-making materials. On January 20, 2021, he visited a web page with a URL that read in part: “what-is-the-most-deadly-type-of-round-bullet.”

Alissa then purchased the type of bullet highlighted on that page, Dougherty said, and used it in the killings. During the same time frame, Alissa also investigated other mass shootings and began focusing on Boulder, Dougherty said.

“We know he targeted Boulder,” he said.

Alissa is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of King Soopers shoppers, employees and a responding Boulder police officer. He also faces more than a hundred other charges related to the attack on the Table Mesa store.

On Thursday, Alissa sat in the courtroom with his attorneys, frequently wiggling in his chair and looking around the courtroom. Dunn argued to jurors that Alissa was unable to tell right from wrong when carrying out the attack because of his untreated schizophrenia.

“He thought people were following him, people were watching him,” Dunn said. “He became delusional.”

Alissa shot and killed eight people in 68 seconds, Dougherty said.

“The victims are completely random, but the killings were absolutely planned, deliberate and intentional,” Dougherty told jurors, citing Alissa’s lethality as evidence of his intentions: nine of the 10 victims were shot multiple times. No one who was shot survived.

“If he hit the person, he would come in and execute them by shooting them over and over again,” Dougherty said. “He killed everyone who was hit.”

Dougherty also argued that Alissa’s surrender as police surrounded the building showed his sanity: He put down his guns and ammunition, stripped to his underwear and raised his hands, the prosecutor said. Alissa later told mental health evaluators that he had expected to go to prison and hoped he would die rather than be incarcerated.

The Boulder officer’s opening statement lasted an hour and 45 minutes; the defense began its presentation just after 11 a.m