A man who shot dead ten people inside a Colorado supermarket claimed he was ‘having fun’ when he carried out his terrifying attack, it has emerged.
Survivors of the 2021 shooting inside a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, testified in court Thursday about the chilling behavior of gunman Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa.
Pharmacist Sarah Chen said she heard the comments while hiding from Alissa with her coworkers.
“I heard him yell, ‘This is funny. This is funny,'” she told the court.
After years of courtroom turmoil over his mental state, Alissa’s trial began last week and was expected to conclude by the end of the month.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 35, opened fire inside a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, in March 2021, killing ten people.
Speaking during the trial of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, pharmacist Sarah Chen, seen here, said she heard comments while hiding with her co-workers at the pharmacy counter.
Alissa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting. Despite his plea, no one, including his own attorneys, has denied that he was the shooter.
After the horrific massacre, Alissa was diagnosed with treatment-resistant schizophrenia.
Alissa poses for a booking photo at the county jail in Boulder, Colorado, U.S., on March 23, 2021.
His lawyers say he had hallucinations that included hearing voices screaming, seeing people who weren’t there and believing he was being followed.
They argued that he should be found not guilty because he was unable to distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the shooting.
He is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of attempted murder and other crimes, including possessing six high-capacity ammunition magazine devices banned in Colorado after previous mass shootings.
Alissa apparently began shooting outside the grocery store, shooting at least one person in the parking lot before moving inside, employees told investigators.
Employees and customers rushed to escape the violence, some escaping through loading docks in the back and others taking refuge in nearby stores.
Investigators say he researched how to carry out a mass shooting before launching his own attack.
They also say he targeted people on the move, killing most of the 10 victims in just over a minute using a pistol with a high-capacity magazine.
Armed police officers are seen outside broken windows at King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive in Boulder after reports of shots fired on Monday, March 22, 2021
King Soopers employees are led away from the massacre at the grocery store in March 2021
The victims were identified as; Denny Strong, 20, Neven Stanisic, 23, Rikki Olds, 25, Suzanne Fountain, 59, Terri Leiker, 51, Eric Talley, 51, Kevin Mahoney, 61, Lynn Murray, 62, Jodie Waters, 65, and Tralona Bartkowiak, 49.
Talley was a police officer who had recently changed jobs to work further away from the front when he was killed. He was also a father of seven children.
Leiker had worked at the grocery store for 30 years and was dating a co-worker who survived the shooting.
Witnesses described him firing two or three shots and then calmly stopping before opening fire again. One survivor said he was “not shooting.”
Last October, a judge ruled that Alissa was competent to stand trial and allowed the stalled case to move forward.
In a ruling, Judge Ingrid Bakke said she was satisfied that after the forced medication, Alissa had “a much better ability to elucidate his reasoning and decision-making.”