Police identified 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa as the sole suspect in the shooting at a Boulder, Colo. King Soopers supermarket shooting that left 10 dead, including a local police officer.
Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold confirmed Tuesday morning that Alissa was shot during an exchange of gunfire with police. He was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment, and is currently in stable condition.
The 10 deceased victims ranged in age 20 to 65, and were identified overnight. Herold identified them as:
- Denny Strong, 20
- Neven Stanisic, 23
- Rikki Olds, 25
- Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
- Teri Leiker, 51
- Eric Talley, 51
- Suzanne Fountain, 59
- Kevin Mahoney, 61
- Lynn Murray, 62
- Jodi Waters, 65
Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty said on Tuesday, “The man who gunned them down will be held fully responsible.”
Alissa has been charged with 10 counts of first degree murder and will be transported to Boulder County jail.
Officials said a thorough investigation is underway into Alissa’s background. They confirmed he was from Arvada – a suburb of Denver, located approximately 20 miles southeast of Boulder – and has lived in the U.S. “for most of his life.”
A now-deleted Facebook page appearing to belong to Alissa said that he was born in Syria and came to the U.S. as a child.
Ali Aliwi Alissa, the suspect’s brother, told The Daily Beast that his brother was “very anti-social” and paranoid, adding that he believes his brother is mentally ill.
“[It was] not at all a political statement, it’s mental illness,” Ali Aliwi Alissa told The Daily Beast. “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.”
Alissa was arrested in 2017 for punching a classmate in the head after the classmate allegedly “made fun of him and called him racial names weeks earlier,” according to documents first obtained by KDVR.
Chief Herold said that the slain officer, Eric Talley, was first on scene shortly after the first 911 calls at 2:30 p.m. MDT, and was shot by the suspect. Herold described Talley’s acts as “nothing short of heroic.”
She recounted presenting an award to Talley and one of his seven children just two weeks ago. Talley had taught CPR to his children, and his son used that skill to save a child choking on a quarter.
Officials said investigators will remain at the scene for the next several days to continue collecting evidence and processing the scene.
Independent video posted to social media showed law enforcement surrounding the building on Monday when the scene was still active. Local resident Dean Schiller with ZFG Videography was loading groceries in his car when he heard the shots ring out and began filming. Some of his earliest footage showed victims lying on the ground outside the parking lot and inside the store, as well as gunshots from inside the store while law enforcement surrounded the building.
