Gunman says he heard ‘murder voices’ before Colorado supermarket shooting

A mentally ill man who shot and killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket told psychologists he heard “murder voices” just before he opened fire, a psychologist testified Friday at the gunman’s trial.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who has been diagnosed with severe schizophrenia, repeatedly failed to provide details about the voices or whether he heard them saying anything other than screaming during the six-hour interviews, forensic psychologist B. Thomas Gray said.

“I started hearing voices, like murder, like murder voices,” Alissa said in a portion of the videotaped interviews shown in court. The clips showed Alissa fidgeting, yawning and stretching at times, and speaking in a soft voice that was often difficult to hear over a humming tone on the recordings.

After the interviews, Mr. Gray and fellow forensic psychologist Loandra Torres determined that Alissa was legally sane and could understand the difference between right and wrong at the time of the 2021 shooting in the college town of Boulder.

No one, including Alissa’s attorneys, disputes that he was the shooter. Alissa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting. The defense argues that he should be found not guilty because he was insane and unable to tell the difference between right and wrong at the time of the shooting.

During Mr. Gray’s questioning, one of Alissa’s attorneys, Kathryn Herold, pointed out that Mr. Gray and Ms. Torres were not confident in their findings, largely because Alissa did not give them more information about what he was experiencing, even though it might have helped his case. She noted that they were relying on a man with treatment-resistant schizophrenia who experienced hallucinations to explain what was happening to him.

Alissa also said he planned to die in the attack so he wouldn’t have to go to jail, Mr. Gray said. Herold pointed out that Alissa surrendered instead. Alissa stripped down to his underwear before being arrested at the store, apparently to show he was no longer armed and posed no threat.

Alissa is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of attempted murder and other crimes, including banning six large-capacity magazines in Colorado after previous mass shootings.

Testimony about Alissa’s mental health is expected to wrap up Monday. The defense will then begin presenting its case, which will include calling Alissa’s family members as witnesses.