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BOULDER, Colo. — A lawyer for the man charged with 10 counts of murder after a mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo., said in court on Thursday that the suspect has an unspecified mental illness.
During a hearing that lasted only about five minutes, prosecutors also vowed to file more charges against the suspect, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, in the next two weeks. Mr. Alissa will continue to be held in jail without bond.
Kathryn Herold, a public defender who is among those assigned to represent Mr. Alissa, asked the judge to postpone the next court date. “We cannot do anything until we are able to fully assess Mr. Alissa’s mental illness,” Ms. Herold said at the hearing.
Judge Thomas Mulvahill said that the parties would next meet in court in the next 60 to 90 days to discuss the case.
Mr. Alissa was in the courtroom and spoke only once during the hearing, saying “yes” when the judge asked if he understood his rights.
One of the other lawyers representing Mr. Alissa on Thursday was Daniel King, a longtime public defender who represented the gunman who killed 12 people in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater during a trial that hinged on the gunman’s mental state.
Law enforcement officials have said that Mr. Alissa, 21, was armed with what appeared to be a semiautomatic rifle and a handgun during the shooting on Monday, and was wearing an armored vest. Investigators said he began the rampage in the parking lot of a King Soopers grocery store and then made his way inside.
According to an arrest affidavit from a Boulder police officer, Mr. Alissa bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol, a short-barreled variant of an AR-15 carbine, just six days before the shooting.
He is charged with killing 10 people, including a police officer who was the first to respond to the scene. In Colorado, the charges carry a penalty of life imprisonment without parole.
Jack Healy reported from Boulder and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs from New York. Will Wright contributed reporting from New York.
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