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ARVADA, Colorado – Authorities on Tuesday identified the suspect in the shooting deaths of 10 people at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, a 21-year-old with a history of violence whose brother said he was deeply disturbed.
Alissa, from Arvada, has been charged with 10 counts of first degree murder for the mass shooting. He was taken into police custody after being shot dead during his arrest.
Ali Aliwi Alissa, the suspect’s 34-year-old brother, told the Daily Beast that authorities searched his house overnight after the shooting.
Alissa said her brother was “very anti-social” and paranoid, adding that in high school he would describe “being chased, someone is behind him, someone is looking for him”.
“When he was having lunch with my sister in a restaurant, he said, ‘People are in the parking lot looking for me.’ She went out and there was no one there. We didn’t know what was going on in his head, ”Alissa said, admitting that he thought her brother was mentally ill.
Police said when Alissa was taken into custody on Monday afternoon he had a leg injury. Footage from the scene showed him being walked out of the store, shirtless and without shoes, and with blood covering his leg. He was reportedly in stable condition and had been booked into the Boulder County Jail Tuesday afternoon.
The suspect’s brother Ali Aliwi Alissa said he traveled on Monday after work to another King Sooper to look for a third brother who had run an errand who could not be reached. He said he found this relative in custody and that he and other members of his family were also detained.
Alissa’s family home sits on the edge of a quiet cul-de-sac lined with two-story homes and a mix of aspens, evergreens, basketball hoops, and bird feeders. Several generations of the family call this home, with solar panels on the roof and a path leading to the back yard, their home.
If the neighbors hadn’t seen the news online, they learned something was wrong around 9:30 p.m. Monday when an armada of vehicles arrived and stormed the block. “It looked like the house was surrounded by Navy SEALs,” said a 39-year-old pilot and neighbor, who was lying 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 to a loudspeaker asking everyone in Alissa’s house to come 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 opened the door to the Alissa family home. She said she was stunned and that the family never suspected their brother of being able to commit this act of violence. “We are shocked. He’s a nice, quiet brother, ”the 30-year-old told The Daily Beast, declining to give his name.
On a now-deleted Facebook page, Alissa describes herself as “Born in Syria in 1999 came to the US in 2002. I love wrestling and news documentaries, that’s me.” He also said he was “interested in ‘computer engineering / computing… kickboxing”. Articles on mixed martial arts, especially jiu jitsu, dominated the page. Alissa sometimes published articles on Islam, often on prayer or holidays.
He shared photos of himself in his Arvada West High wrestling uniform, as well as medals from a fighting association.
Conrad, a former wrestling teammate of the suspect who spoke on condition that his last name not be disclosed, told the Daily Beast 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 off his hat, didn’t talk to coaches when he was losing. If I remember correctly, I even cursed one of the coaches once.
In a Facebook post, the suspect appears to have expressed fears that someone is targeting his phone for Islamophobic reasons.
“Yeah, if these racist Islamophobes stopped hacking my phone and allowed me to lead a normal life, I probably could,” he said in July 2019.
On Facebook, his policy appeared mixed in several camps. He shared an article berating Donald Trump’s stance on immigration, but also posted on his own opposition to gay marriage and abortion.
A day after the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shooting in New Zealand, Alissa shared a Facebook post from another user that read: “Muslims in #christchurch mosque were not the victims of a single gunman . They have been the victims of the whole industry of Islamophobia which has vilified them.
Authorities have not disclosed the motive for the gruesome killings, saying the investigation is still in its early stages and “it is premature for us to draw any conclusions at this point.”
“I can tell you that the community is safe and that we will continue to share updates as we investigate and draw conclusions as a result of this investigation,” said FBI Special Agent Michael Schneider.
According to the suspect’s brother, the motivation may not have been political.
“[It was] it’s not a political statement at all, it’s a mental illness, ”Ali Aliwi Alissa told The Daily Beast. “The guy was bullied a lot in high school, he was like an outgoing kid, but after going to high school and being bullied a lot, he started to get anti-social.
Court records show that Alissa has already had at least one altercation with the law, including an arrest after she “cold-armed” a classmate in 2017. According to court documents first obtained by KDVR, Alissa has hit a classmate in the head after making fun of him and calling him racial names weeks earlier. The victim suffered bruises, swelling and cuts to the head. Alissa pleaded guilty to assault in connection with the 2018 incident.
An employee at Arvada West High School told The Daily Beast that Alissa transferred to the school in the middle of her freshman year and graduated in 2018.
The brother noted that the family had been in Colorado for almost 20 years and were “so sorry” for the victims.
The Boulder Police Department also released the names of the ten people killed on Monday, aged 65 to 20.
They include Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; 49-year-old Tralona Bartkowika; Suzanne Fountain, 59 years old; Teri Leiker, 51 years old; Boulder Constable Eric Talley, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; Jody Waters, 65.
“I wish I could stand here and promise the pain will heal quickly,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said at a press conference Tuesday. “But it won’t … At times like this, it’s hard to see the light shining … through the dark.”
“Not only have we lost ten lives, but it is real horror and terror,” he added.
Lori Olds, Ricki Olds’ aunt, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday: “We lost our beloved Rikki Olds to the monster who slaughtered the King of Soopers in Boulder CO yesterday to have his rotten donkey fried and burned in hell. . ”
Reports of a shooting at the Table Mesa Drive store arrived just before 3 p.m. local time on Monday, officials said. Several witnesses described scenes of terror inside the supermarket, as customers and workers took cover after hearing a series of loud bangs or seeing the attackers shoot people down.
Sarah Moonshadow, a 42-year-old South Boulder resident, was buying strawberries with her 21-year-old son when the gunfire broke out.
“He shot us. I did not watch. I just ran, ”she told the Daily Beast on Monday.
Another witness said The Denver Post the shooter “didn’t say shit” before starting to shoot. “He just came in and started shooting,” the witness said. After the shooter “fired a few shots,” he “remained silent and then released a few more. He was not spraying, ”said a third witness.
The events in Boulder marked the second major mass shooting in a week, just days after a gunman shot down three massage parlors in the Atlanta metro area, killing eight people, including six Asian women.
Colorado was also the scene of some of the nation’s worst mass shootings following the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 that left 13 people dead. In 2012, an attack in an Aurora cinema left 12 people dead.
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