BOULDER, Colo. — A Boulder County District judge ordered bi-weekly updates from the state hospital regarding the progress of a mental health evaluation for the man who carried out the deadly attack at a Boulder King Soopers store after the hospital failed to meet a Jan. 8 deadline to provide the report.
Ahmad Alissa is charged with 111 counts, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, for the March 2021 shooting that took place at the King Soopers store on Table Mesa Drive.
In November, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity during a hearing which required him to undergo another mental health evaluation. It was supposed to be completed by Jan. 8.
On Dec. 29, the state mental hospital notified the court that it would not meet that deadline and asked to have until April 30 to file the report.
Boulder prosecutors asserted in a court filing week that Department of Human Services officials dragged out the process – waiting about three weeks to select doctors to do the evaluation and then three more weeks before requesting the delay.
According to court documents, that request was designed to give the doctors doing the evaluation the chance to ask the man about the attack.
During a hearing on Friday, a representative from the hospital apologized for the delays and lack of communication about their progress. She told the court they needed to complete numerous interviews with people who knew the shooter as part of the evaluation. She said they hoped to get those done in February and have a report issued sometime in March.
She, however, cautioned that if the interviews are delayed then the report could be pushed back. She said they hoped the April 30 date would be a worst-case scenario.
The shooter is currently scheduled for trial in August but it's possible it would need to be pushed back depending on when the report is complete. The district attorney noted the victims' families "strongly object" to a delay.
Alissa's attorneys raised the issue of his competency back in September 2021. Doctors who evaluated him concluded that he was not competent to proceed – meaning he was not able to understand the proceedings or assist in his own defense.
Since then, he was repeatedly ruled incompetent, but Boulder County District Judge Ingrid Bakke recently ruled that he was competent after he underwent extensive treatment, which included forced medication. She said in her decision on the suspect's competency was "tenuous."
If a jury were to find the suspect not guilty by reason of insanity, he would avoid a prison sentence and would be sent to a mental hospital for treatment until he was judged to no longer be a danger to himself or others.
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