BOULDER — The three-and-a-half-year saga surrounding the Boulder King Soopers massacre came to a grueling end Monday as families of the 10 people killed inside the store alternated between offering forgiveness, calling on vengeance from God and begging America to end the horror of mass shootings.
Family members cried as they recounted the lasts they had with those killed — final hugs, phone calls, scoops of ice cream and wishes for a good night’s sleep.
“To me, justice is putting an end to mass shootings in America,” said Erika Mahoney, whose father Kevin Mahoney was shot to death in the grocery store parking lot. “This all needs to stop.”
Mahoney spoke Monday during the sentencing hearing for Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who an hour earlier had been convicted of 55 crimes in the March 22, 2021, mass shooting at a King Soopers on Table Mesa. Killed, in addition to Mahoney, were Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Teri Leiker, 51; Boulder police Officer Eric Talley, 51; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65.
Boulder County District Court Judge Ingrid Bakke sentenced Alissa to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 10 counts of first-degree murder. She also gave Alissa 1,334 years in prison, to be served consecutively, for 38 counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault and six counts of illegally possessing a high-capacity magazine.
The jury reached a verdict Monday afternoon after deliberating for two hours on Friday and another three on Monday. Family and friends of the victims quietly cried as the judge read the first guilty verdict. Police officers in the courtroom took deep breaths as the guilty count was read for their fallen colleague.
The shooter fidgeted in his seat, sipped water and talked with his lawyer as his family sat stoically behind him, listening to guilty verdict after guilty verdict.
The family did not stay for the sentencing hearing, but in the courthouse parking lot his mother, Khadija Alhidid, spoke briefly to reporters, saying the family was bewildered by her son’s illness and that they did not know what to do about him in the months leading up to the shooting. During the trial, his father testified that he thought his son was possessed by an evil spirit.
“We just didn’t know what kind of sickness this is,” Alhidid said.
The shooter changed from street clothes to an orange and white jail uniform and was handcuffed and shackled for the sentencing hearing. He continued to fidget and write on a notepad during the sentencing.
Alissa’s lawyers never disputed that he was the shooter but they tried to convince the jury that he was insane and could not tell right from wrong at the time. Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the mass shooting and suffered auditory and visual hallucinations for several years leading up to the attack. His defense team said he was hearing voices that told him to carry out the shooting.
But neither the jury nor the victims’ families bought the insanity defense.
Prosecutors told the jury that Alissa had been planning a mass shooting since January 2021 and days before the shooting he was searching for a place in Boulder to do it. They believe he chose the King Soopers because it was in the first shopping plaza on Colorado 93 as he drove into town from his family’s home in Arvada.
When Alissa arrived he began shooting people in the parking lot.
Kevin Mahoney was returning his shopping cart to a corral — as good people do, his daughter said — when the shooter pointed his gun toward her father. Kevin Mahoney tried to run and the gunman chased him down.
“My Dad did not want to go. He had so much life left in him,” she said. “I never imagined he would run for his life in the parking lot of King Soopers.”
Stanisic was killed while sitting in his work van in the parking lot. He had just finished repairing a broken coffee machine at a Starbucks inside the grocery.
He had followed his father’s footsteps in the repair business, seemingly drawn to fixing things even as a toddler, said his sister, Nicolina Stanisic. She told a story about an afternoon when he came home from work covered in blue because he had fixed a slushy machine.
“In no world should we lose loved ones to mass shootings,” Stanisic said. “Our life without Neven is not a complete, whole life. Now there is barely anything to talk and laugh about. Most days it is silent.”
Margie Whittington’s daughter, Leiker, had worked at the same King Soopers as a courtesy clerk for 32 years before she was gunned down while working. Leiker was born with a learning disability and struggled with following time and counting money. Still, she saved enough to buy her own condo in Boulder and lived a fulfilling life cheering on the University of Colorado sports teams and marching band, Whittington said.
“She was almost always happy, smiling, content in her own skin,” Whittington said. “We want the shooter to know this murder has changed us. We will never be the same.”
Olivia Mackenzie, Murray’s daughter, blamed the shooter for the loss of both parents. Her father died of a heart attack a year after the grocery shooting and Mackenzie believes it was caused by grief.
“Mom, I’m so grateful to have been and continue to be your daughter,” she said. “I don’t have parents anymore because of this.”
Multiple people spoke about Talley, the Boulder police officer who was shot as he ran into the store. His parents, sister, a fellow police officer and his daughter talked about how much effort he put into his family and his law enforcement service.
Kirstin Brooks, Talley’s sister, said she was sitting at his grave on Monday when she received a call to let her know a verdict had been reached. Grass from the cemetery still clung to her skirt.
“On March 22, 2021, I truly believed that the only hero that I’ve ever known left this earth,” Brooks said. “My life has changed and that blood on the grocery store floor was my blood because it was my brother.”
The trial’s end also brings to a close a painful time in Boulder’s history. The massacre turned an ordinary activity — grocery shopping — into an event filled with fear and sadness. Many people talked Monday about how traumatized they are when going to buy food for their families.
The victims’ families thanked people who rallied to raise money for them and those who paid tribute for days at a memorial that sprang up outside the grocery store.
“Today brings a very painful chapter to the criminal case to an end,” said 20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty. “I recognize nothing will repair the trauma.”
