Boulder law enforcement: Alleged King Soopers shooter appeared ‘eerily’ calm moments after shooting

In the moments after reportedly killing 10 people at a Boulder King Soopers grocery store, the man facing more than 100 criminal charges for the crime asked to call his mother.

In body-worn camera shown Thursday during a motions hearing ahead of the five-week trial scheduled to start at the end of the month, the alleged gunman, 25-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, appeared in the moments after the shooting irritated but mostly calm, law enforcement officers said.

That March 2021 day inside the store, Alissa had stripped out of his clothes, except some underwear briefs, despite the cool temperatures outside. Officers confronted him after a firefight in the store and asked him if he was “our shooter.”

“I want to go home,” Alissa can be heard saying in the camera footage.

“You’re not going home,” an officer replied.

“I want to talk to my mom,” Alissa said.

Officers pressed him, asking him whether he came there by himself and whether there was anyone inside who was going to shoot at them.

“Did you come here by yourself?” officers asked him.

“Yes,” he said.

“You need to tell me, man, is there anyone else in there who is going to get hurt?” an officer can be heard asking him.

“I don’t think so — let me talk to my mom,” he said.

Thursday’s motions hearing was a chance for prosecutors and defense attorneys to work out final details about what will be able to be admitted in Alissa’s trial, once a jury is seated.  

Alissa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for the March 22, 2021, shooting in which 10 people were shot and killed, including Boulder police officer Eric Talley. The other victims were Tralona Bartkowiak, Suzanne Fountain, Teri Leiker, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray, Rikki Olds, Neven Stanisic, Denny Stong and Jody Waters.

The defendant’s defense attorneys do not dispute that Alissa was the gunman but have stated that he was schizophrenic, mentally unwell that day and unable to comprehend what he did or the consequences.

But for years in court proceedings, prosecutors have tried to lay a legal groundwork that Alissa was aware of what he did that day and that he may have even been malingering, or faking, the schizophrenia to delay his criminal court proceedings.

In court on Thursday, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty told Boulder’s Chief Judge Ingrid Bakke that there was no record that Alissa had never once been treated by any medical professional or medicated for mental illness.

Detective Sgt. Connor Pontiakos, who works at the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, testified Thursday that he spent almost 11 hours with Alissa at the hospital after the shooting, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound that he suffered in a firefight with police inside the store.

Pontiakos said that they made general small talk about sports and food and restaurants. He also said that at several points, Alissa told him he needed to rest and needed a break, which the detective said he obliged at the time.

“Was the defendant tracking questions?” DA Dougherty pressed Pontiakos.

“Yes,” he said.

“Any indications he was suffering from delusions?” Dougherty asked.

“No,” he said.

About 11 hours into those conversations, Pontiakos said he read him his Miranda rights, which states he has the right to an attorney and will not be compelled to speak to police without one present.

The defendant has spent the last couple of years at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo, where he is being forcibly medicated after refusing to take anti-psychotic medications that doctors say treat schizophrenia. He has been traveling, including on Thursday, to Boulder for multiple court hearings over the past several years and prosecutors say even this week he refused to take his medications in jail while awaiting his hearings. 

In jail, the deputies do not have the authority to forcibly medicate him.

Prosecutors want this detail disclosed to the jury and defense attorneys say his refusals are due to interactions with an existing heart medication he is taking and asked that his full medical record not be disclosed.

Defense attorneys also say they’re concerned about the admissibility of conversations Alissa had with Pontiakos, an FBI agent and another police officer inside the hospital because they say it wasn’t a fair interrogation. Dougherty said he wasn’t planning on playing those conversations to jurors unless he was rebutting an argument.

Boulder’s Chief Judge Ingrid Bakke will rule on the various motions ahead of Aug. 26, when jury selection is scheduled to start in this case in Boulder.