Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was identified Tuesday as the alleged Colorado supermarket shooter who killed 10 people including a police officer as authorities vowed to bring the “evildoer” to justice.
According to a report by The New York Post, the 21-year-old now faces 10 counts of first-degree murder for the rifle rampage he unleashed Monday afternoon in a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Some shoppers were out getting Covid-19 vaccines, officials said at a Tuesday briefing.
“We will hold the evildoer responsible to the full extent of the law for his actions,” said Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. “And we will always remember the victims of the King Soopers shooting.”
Alissa, who was shot in the leg and is hospitalized in stable condition, is expected to be transferred to a local jail later Tuesday, at which point an arrest affidavit and warrant will be made public, authorities said.
Authorities have already interviewed Alissa, but they did not disclose Tuesday what, if anything, he said about his motive.
“Why did this happen?” asked Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty at the briefing.
“We don’t have the answer to that yet and the investigation is in its very early stages.”
“When he was having lunch with my sister in a restaurant, he said, ‘People are in the parking lot, they are looking for me,’” Ali Aliwi Alissa, 34, told the outlet. “She went out, and there was no one. We didn’t know what was going on in his head.”
He described his brother as “very anti-social,” and said that when the alleged gunman was in high school, he would describe “being chased, someone is behind him, someone is looking for him.”
At the briefing, authorities said that Alissa appears to be the only suspect, and that he had no prior run-ins with local police.
Officials said that Alissa has spent most of his life in the US, but did not disclose where he lived previously.
The 10 victims were also identified at the press conference — including slain Boulder police officer Eric Talley.