ARVADA, Colorado: Authorities on Tuesday identified the suspect in the shooting death of ten people at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, a 21-year-old man with a history of violence, whose brother said which was deeply disturbed.
Alissa, who is from Arvada, has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder by mass shooting. He was arrested after being shot during detention.
Ali Aliwi Alissa, the suspect’s 34-year-old brother, told The Daily Beast that authorities searched his home all night after the shooting.
Alissa said her brother was “very antisocial” and paranoid, adding that in high school, she would describe “being chased, someone is behind him, someone is looking for him.”
“When I was having lunch with my sister at a restaurant, she said, ‘People are in the parking lot, they’re looking for me.’ She came out, and there was no one there. who believes his brother is mentally ill.
Police said when Alissa was arrested Monday afternoon, she had a leg injury. Images of the scene showed him being taken out of the store, shirtless, without shoes and with blood covering his leg. He is now in stable condition and is expected to be taken to Boulder County Jail this afternoon.
The suspect’s brother said he traveled to the location of another Sooper king on Monday after working Monday to find a third brother who had executed an order and could not be contacted. He said he found this relative in police custody and that he and more family members were also arrested.
“I learned that [Ahmad] he is suspicious after coming home from work, ”Ali Aliwi Alissa told The Daily Beast, describing how she could not reach her siblings on Monday afternoon.
Alissa’s family home is on the edge of a quiet cul-de-sac lined with two-story houses and a mix of evergreen Aspen, basketball hoops and bird feeders. Several generations of the family call this house, with solar panels on the roof and a flag path leading to the backyard, their home.
If the neighbors hadn’t seen the news online, they knew something wasn’t going around 9.30pm on Monday, when an army of vehicles arrived that stormed the block. “It looked like the house was surrounded by Navy SEAL,” said a 39-year-old pilot and neighbor, who was in bed next door when law enforcement arrived and refused to give his name.
Matt Benz, a 37-year-old investment manager who lives five doors down, woke up with a speaker asking everyone in Alissa’s house to get to the front door. “It’s a quiet neighborhood, full of young families, which is why we moved here,” he told The Daily Beast, detailing his shock at the news.
On Tuesday morning, a woman who identified herself as an older sister knocked on the door of the Alissa family home. He said he was on the ground, and the family never suspected that his brother was capable of committing this act of violence. “We are shocked. He’s nice, a quiet brother, ”the 30-year-old told The Daily Beast, refusing to give his name.
On an already deleted Facebook page, Alissa described herself as “born in Syria in 1999 came to the US in 2002. I like wrestling and informative documentaries that I am” also said she was “interested in “computer engineering … kickboxing.” Publications on mixed martial arts, especially jiu jitsu, dominated the page.Sometimes Alissa published on Islam, often on prayer or holidays.
He shared photos of himself in his Arvada West High wrestling uniform, as well as wearing medals from a wrestling association.
Conrad, a former teammate of the suspect who spoke under the condition of retaining his last name, told The Daily Beast that he was deeply surprised by the allegations, but that Alissa had a temper.
“One thing I can tell you is that he didn’t take it very well to lose,” he said. “I remember it in wrestling. He would throw his hat in, not talk to the coaches when he lost. If I remember correctly, I even sewed one of the coaches once. “
In a Facebook post, the suspect appeared to express fears that someone was pointing at his phone for Islamophobic reasons.
“Yes, if these racist Islamophobic people stopped hacking my phone and let me have a normal life I probably could,” he posted in July 2019.
On Facebook, his policy appeared mixed in several fields. He shared an article criticizing Donald Trump’s stance on immigration, but also published about his own opposition to gay marriage and abortion.
Authorities have not released any motive behind the horrific killings, saying the investigation was still in its preliminary stages and “it is premature for us to draw conclusions at this time.”
“I can tell you that the community is safe and we will continue to share updates as we conduct our investigation and draw conclusions as a result of that investigation,” said FBI Special Agent Michael Schneider.
According to the suspect’s brother, the motivation may not have been political.
“[It was] not a political statement at all, it is a mental illness, ”Ali Aliwi Alissa told The Daily Beast. “The boy used to be very bullied in high school. He was like an outgoing kid, but after going to high school and being very bullied, he started being antisocial.”
Judicial records show that Alissa had at least one previous incident with the law, including an arrest after “cold-dragging” a classmate in 2017. According to court documents first obtained by KDVR, Alissa struck a blow punched a classmate after he “had made fun of him and called him racial names weeks earlier.” The victim suffered bruises, swelling and cuts to the head. Alissa pleaded guilty to one charge. of aggression in relation to the incident in 2018.
An Arvada West High School employee told The Daily Beast that Alissa had moved to the school in the middle of freshman year and graduated in 2018.
The brother noted that the family has been in Colorado for nearly 20 years and is “sorry” for the victims.
The Boulder Police Department also released the names of those ten people killed Monday, who are between 65 and 20 years old.
They include Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowika, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; Jody Waters, 65 years old.
“I wish I could be here and promise that the pain will heal quickly,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said during a news conference Tuesday. “But it won’t … At times like this, it’s hard to see the light shining through the darkness.”
“Not only did we lose ten lives, but it’s a terror and a real terror,” he added.
Lori Olds, Ricki Olds’ aunt, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday: “We lost our beloved Rikki Olds to the monster that shot King Soopers at Boulder CO yesterday, so his rotten ass was fried and burned in the hell “.
Reports of a shooting at the Table Mesa Drive store arrived Monday shortly before 3 p.m., officials said. Several witnesses described scenes of terror inside the supermarket, when customers and workers rushed in search after hearing a series of loud bangs or seeing the attack shoot people.
Sarah Moonshadow, a 42-year-old South Boulder resident, was buying strawberries with her 21-year-old son when the shots exploded.
“It simply came to our notice then. I didn’t look. I just ran, ”he told The Daily Beast on Monday.
He told another witness The Denver Post the gunman “didn’t say shit” before he started firing. “He just came in and started firing,” the witness said. After the gunman “fired a couple of shots,” he fell silent and then let go a couple more. It didn’t spray, “said a third witness.
The Boulder events marked the second major mass shooting in a week, which came just days after a gunman fired three massage parlors in the Atlanta subway area and killed eight people, six of them Asian. .
Colorado has also been the scene of some of the worst mass shootings in the nation after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that left 13 people dead. In 2012, an attack on an Aurora movie theater left 12 dead.