“It will be something haunting to all of us, until we figure that out,” Herold said.
She said Alissa purchased the AR-556 pistol used in the attack legally at a gun store in Arvada, Colo., about 30 minutes from the grocery store, last week.
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty also spoke at the news conference Friday morning. Dougherty vowed authorities will continue to work vigorously to uncover a motive for the attack.
“I think the victims’ families and the community are desperate to know the motive,” Dougherty said. “We want to know the motive and that is going to be our focus going forward.”
He said that officers responding to the initial 911 calls on Monday faced “a very significant amount of gunfire” from the shooter.
Boulder and University of Colorado police officers charged into the store “very, very quickly,” and “their actions saved other civilians from being killed,” he said.
Dougherty and Herold said that one of the officers who responded to the scene shot Alissa in the leg, and that the officer has been put on administrative leave, which is standard procedure in Boulder. The pair said the officer’s actions are being reviewed by a team of experts.
Alissa appeared in court for the first time Thursday, where a judge ruled that he would be held without bail.
Alissa’s lawyers asked to delay the next status hearing in the case for two to three months, saying “we cannot do anything until we are able to fully assess Mr. Alissa’s mental illness.”
The judge granted the request and called for a recess after roughly six minutes. Alissa did not enter a plea, but will do so later in the judicial process.
Alissa, from Arvada, has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder for his alleged shooting rampage of the King Soopers store.
The Boulder County district attorney’s office said in a news release that “additional charges would be filed in the weeks ahead.”
Mark Berman contributed to this report.
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