First court appearance for Boulder shooting suspect set for Thursday

BOULDER, Colo. (KRDO) -- The man accused of opening fire in a Boulder King Soopers killing ten people will make his first court appearance on Thursday.

21-year-old Ahmad Alissa from Arvada is currently facing ten counts of first-degree murder. He will be in court for an arrest warrant hearing according to the twentieth judicial district attorney's office.

Colorado Springs criminal defense attorney Patrick Mika says Thursday's hearing will focus on reading Alissa his rights and what he is currently charged with.

"The court is going to be very meticulous about advising the defendant of his rights explaining to him the charges and the consequences of those allegations,” Mika says.

However, Mika says with recent reports coming out from family members of Alissa saying they believe he was suffering from mental illness, he believes the defense will request a competency evaluation.

Mika says, “I can’t imagine any other defense that could likely be run in this case other than an impaired mental condition defense.”

The evaluation would take about 90 days to complete and be done by the State hospital. The defense could also hire its own expert to conduct the evaluation. “So that could delay things," Mika says. "We know that happened in the Dear case and we’re still living with that.”

Mika is talking about Robert Dear the self-admitted gunman who killed three people and injured eight others at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood in 2015. Since his arrest, he has been found several times incompetent to stand trial.

Meaning this could be the start of a very long legal process. Mika says, “It seems like that it’s going to take a slow path likely to get some sort of resolution.”