Fresh-faced and smiling shyly, this is King Sooper shooter Ahmad Alissa, 21, seen in a school yearbook photo taken just two years ago.
The photo, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, was captured while the killer was studying at West Arvada High where he excelled at wrestling but little else, according to friends.
A second photo from the yearbook shows Alissa’s wrestling team and lists him among the fighters, although he is not in the picture because he was kicked off the team after a foul-mouthed outburst after losing a fight in training.
Alissa has piled on 60lbs since leaving school, moving into his parents’ basement and starting work at his brother’s restaurant – Sultan Grill – in Arvada, Colorado.
Court records obtained by DailyMail.com show he weighed 140lbs when he was arrested for beating up a classmate in November 2017.
Boulder gunman Ahmad Alissa is pictured in 2019 as a fresh-faced, smiling student at West Arvada High School, where he was a wrestler.
Former classmates have revealed how Alissa (pictured right wearing wrestling medals) in an undated Facebook photo had excelled in wrestling and little else, and once blew up on his teammates after losing a match. Court records obtained by DailyMail.com show he weighed 140lbs when he was arrested for beating up a classmate in November 2017
Two years on, Alissa is charged with 10 counts of murder after gunning down victims at a King Sooper grocery store in Boulder on Monday. He is seen shirtless and 60lbs heavier while being led out of the supermarket in handcuffs
The documents describe how he hit Alexander Kimose over the head and knocked him to the ground before punching him repeatedly.
‘[Alissa] got up in classroom, walked over to the victim and ‘cold cocked’ him in the head,’ the papers state.
‘When [Kimose] fell to the floor, [Alissa] got on top of [Kimose] and punched him in the head several more times.’
The criminal complaint says Kimose was left with ‘bruising, swelling and cuts to head as well as pain’.
Since leaving high school, Alissa has gained 60lbs and lives in his parents’ basement. He is pictured above in his booking photo
It also notes that he appeared to have attacked Kimose unprovoked. It says: ‘No witnesses could see or hear any reason for [Alissa] to hit [Kimose].
‘[Alissa] stated that [Kimose] had made fun of him several weeks earlier and called him racial names’.
But while Alissa’s family have claimed he was bullied at school, the mother of one of his school friends has told DailyMail.com that he was not.
Cynthia Smith, 53, is the mother of Halle, 20, who went to school with Alissa and Kimose and was one of the witnesses to the 2017 attack.
She told DailyMail.com that her daughter remains friends with Kimose who ‘was never a bully’ and has been left devastated by the shooting.
Smith said: ‘Alex was never a bully – he’s not that sort of guy. I think he [Alissa] was just upset about a video and some other things.’
Documents obtained by DailyMail.com show Alissa was once arrested in 2017 after violently attacking a student in class. According to the criminal complaint, ‘no witnesses could see or hear any reason’ for Alissa to assault the boy
Social media posts from the gunman’s Facebook page emerged on Tuesday. Alissa wrote in March 2019: ‘Just curious what are the laws about phone privacy because I believe my old school (a west) was hacking my phone. Anyone know if I can do anything through the law?’
Facebook posts also showed Alissa believed ‘racist islamophobic people’ were hacking his phone
She added: ‘Alex is really upset about this [the shooting] – he’s devastated. What happened to him was traumatic in the first place and now this has brought it back up.
‘Everyone is very upset. It wasn’t long since they were at school and it’s horrible to think a classmate could do that.’
Court papers show Alissa was given a year’s probation after being convicted of third-degree assault over the attack on Kimose, and later asked to have it extended by three months because he hadn’t managed to complete the community service element of his punishment in time.
Other classmates have spoken of his violent temper, with Dayton Marvel, a fellow wrestler, describing him as ‘kind of scary to be around’.
Tactical police units respond to the scene of King Soopers. The windows of the store were left broken, likely from gunfire
People pay their respects at a memorial outside a King Soopers grocery store where Alissa opened fire on Monday and slaughtered 10 people
Marvel added in an interview with the Denver Post: ‘His senior year, during the wrestle-offs to see who makes varsity, he actually lost his match and quit the team and yelled out in the wrestling room that he was, like, going to kill everybody.
‘Nobody believed him. We were just all kind of freaked out by it, but nobody did anything about it.’
Angel Hernandez, another former teammate, told the paper Alissa got kicked off the team following a foul-mouthed outburst.
‘He was one of those guys with a short fuse’, Hernandez said. ‘Once he gets mad, its like something takes over and its not him. There is no stopping him at that point.
‘If he did get ticked off about something, within a split second, it was like if something takes over, like a demon. He’d just unleash all his anger.’
Alissa’s family are understood to have told cops investigating the shooting that he is mentally ill and suffers from delusions.
A woman at Alissa’s family home – thought to be Alissa’s mother – threatened to call the police on a DailyMail.com reporter and said the family are not planning to speak to the media
Images taken on Tuesday also showed the Sultan Grill restaurant (pictured) in Arvada, Colorado, which is owned by Alissa’s family
An official who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity said relatives described how Alissa would claim people were chasing or following him.
Sister Aicha Alissa told DailyMail.com today that the family have had to hire lawyers and have been told by their legal team not to discuss Alissa in public.
The grocery store shooter is due to appear in court in Boulder, Colorado this morning charged with 10 counts of first-degree homicide.
Alissa, who is currently locked up at the Boulder County Jail after being released from hospital yesterday afternoon, is expected to attend in person.
COLORADO SHOOTING VICTIMS
Eric Talley
Officer Eric Talley, 51
Boulder cop and father-of-seven. One of the first on the scene.
He had recently changed jobs because he wanted to work away from the front line.
He was given a hero’s procession from the grocery store to the funeral home on Monday night.
Rikki Olds, 25
Rikki Olds, 25
Olds was identified by her aunt on Facebook.
She was an employee at the grocery store.
Her aunt on Facebook both paid tribute to her and called for the shooter to ‘burn in hell’.
‘We lost our beloved Rikki Olds to the monster who shot up the king soopers in Boulder CO yesterday may his rotten a** fry and burn in hell,’ her aunt Lori Olds said.
Teri Leiker, 51
Teri Leiker, 51
Leiker had worked at the store for 30 years and was dating a colleague, Clint.
Clint survived the shooting.
Her friends paid tribute to her on Tuesday.
‘She loved going to work and enjoyed everything about being there.
‘Her boyfriend and her had been good friends and began dating in the fall of 2019.
‘He was working yesterday too. He is alive,’ her friend said on Facebook.
She said Teri signed off all her calls with ‘your buddy Teri’ and that working in the store was her ‘favorite thing to do’. .
Kevin Mahoney, 61
Kevin Mahoney with his daughter
Kevin’s daughter Erika Mahoney revealed that her he was also among the victims.
She tweeted a touching photo of Mahoney walking her down the aisle for her wedding last year, alongside the caption: ‘I am heartbroken to announce that my Dad, my hero, Kevin Mahoney, was killed in the King Soopers shooting in my hometown of Boulder, CO.
‘My dad represents all things Love.
‘I’m so thankful he could walk me down the aisle last summer.
‘Thank you to the Boulder PD for being so kind through this painful tragedy.’
Denny Stong, 20
Denny Stong, 20
Friends said Stong was training to be a pilot.
It’s unclear if he was in the grocery store to shop, or if he was there to get his vaccine.
He was the youngest victim.
Lynn Murray, 62
Lynn Murray, a mother-of-two, was a retired New York City magazine photo director who had worked for Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Glamour before relocating to Colorado to raise her children.
Jody Waters
Her family have revealed she was at the store at the time of the shooting to fill an Instacart order.
‘She was an amazing woman, probably the kindest person I’ve ever known,’ her husband John told the New York Times.
‘Our lives are ruined, our tomorrows are forever filled with a sorrow that is unimaginable. She was one of the greatest people you’d ever want to know: hard working, loving and compassionate, caring, went out of her way to make sure everyone else had a smile on their face.
Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
‘I just want her to be remembered as just as this amazing, amazing comet spending 62 years flying across the sky.’
Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
Tralona Bartkowiak ran a small clothing and artisan store in Boulder and had recently become engaged.
Suzanne Fountain, 59
Her store mainly sold yoga and festival attire. Bartkowiak had, in recent years, regularly attended festivals like Burning Man to advertise her business.
Jody Waters, 65
Suzanne Fountain, 59
Suzanne Fountain was a licensed Medicare agent and financial counselor.
Neven Stanisic, 23
