Judge rules Colorado supermarket shooting suspect as incompetent for trial

A man who was charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket earlier this year has been ruled by a judge as mentally incompetent to stand trial and ordered to be treated at the state mental hospital to see if he can be made well enough to face prosecution.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, is accused of opening fire at a busy King Soopers in the college town of Boulder in March — killing a police officer, shoppers and several store employees.

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Four physicians have now ruled that Alissa is not mentally fit to participate in court proceedings, according to District Attorney Michael Dougherty. He demanded that Alissa be sent to a state mental institution for treatment.

Dougherty did not explain why the experts decided Alissa is incompetent. Alissa’s lawyer, Kathryn Herold, claimed Friday that her client suffers from a “severe” mental disorder but could not elaborate.

After Dougherty delivered the results of the examination, Judge Ingrid Bakke concluded that Alissa was incompetent.

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Almost all procedures in the lawsuit have been halted indefinitely as a result of the verdict. Bakke has scheduled a hearing on March 15, 2022, over a year after the incident, to assess if any progress has been achieved in the treatment of Alissa and to determine what should happen next.

Alissa was ruled not mentally competent in a previous court-ordered exam, but prosecutors requested a second one.

After Alissa’s attorneys questioned Bakke’s competency based on a prior review by their own expert, Bakke ordered the initial evaluation.

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The prosecution of a man accused of killing three people in a 2015 attack on a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs has also been postponed due to competency difficulties.

In his state case, Robert Dear was repeatedly declared unable to proceed. In 2019, federal prosecutors prosecuted him, but the case in federal court has been delayed due to the competence question.

With inputs from the Associated Press