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'I surrender, I'm naked': Colorado shooting witness recalls moment the suspect gave himself up after police surrounded the supermarket

  A witness to the   Colorado   gun rampage has described the moment the suspect gave himself up after being surrounded by police, telling t...

 A witness to the Colorado gun rampage has described the moment the suspect gave himself up after being surrounded by police, telling them: 'I surrender, I'm naked'. 

Maggie Montoya, who was working at the King Soopers supermarket where ten people died in Monday's massacre, heard gunshots ring out through the store as she took cover in a pharmacy room and called 911 and her family. 

Once police arrived and ordered the shooter to surrender, Montoya was shocked to hear Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa respond from just in front of the pharmacy, she told CPR.  


Alissa was subsequently seen being escorted away in handcuffs with a bloodied leg outside the supermarket in Boulder, and now faces ten counts of murder.  

In custody: The suspected shooter, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, is taken away in handcuffs with a bloodied leg outside the King Soopers supermarket in Boulder on Monday

In custody: The suspected shooter, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, is taken away in handcuffs with a bloodied leg outside the King Soopers supermarket in Boulder on Monday 

Running for cover: King Soopers employees are led away from the active shooter who killed ten people in the latest traumatic mass shooting in Colorado

Running for cover: King Soopers employees are led away from the active shooter who killed ten people in the latest traumatic mass shooting in Colorado 

Maggie Montoya (pictured), who was working at the King Soopers supermarket where ten people died in Monday's massacre, heard gunshots ring out through the store as she took cover in a pharmacy room and called 911 and her family

Maggie Montoya (pictured), who was working at the King Soopers supermarket where ten people died in Monday's massacre, heard gunshots ring out through the store as she took cover in a pharmacy room and called 911 and her family

Montoya, 25, described how she ran for cover in a room where pharmacists had been giving out Covid-19 vaccines on the day of the shooting. 

She heard what she said were several bursts of rapid gunfire, against the background of supermarket music still playing over the public address system. 

While she hoped for safety behind a metal door, Montoya said she was 'just imagining the person hopping the counter and just coming in the room'. 

From her hiding place, she called 911 and contacted her parents and her boyfriend, as well as the husband of a pharmacy co-worker who did not have her phone.  


After the shooting died down she said she 'thought everybody was dead' and wondered why police had yet to storm inside the supermarket. 

But finally she heard the voice of a police officer on the loudspeaker telling the shooter that 'the entire building is surrounded... I need you to surrender now'.

In a further shock to Montoya, she heard a voice respond from close to her pharmacy hiding place: 'I surrender, I'm naked'. 

But there was no immediate response and long minutes passed before Montoya heard police forcing their way inside. 

The shooter 'was still by the pharmacy when they told him to surrender', Montoya said, adding that the suspect had repeated that he was naked. 

People comfort each other outside the store while police watch over them following the mass shooting in Boulder on Monday

People comfort each other outside the store while police watch over them following the mass shooting in Boulder on Monday 

People comfort each other at a makeshift memorial outside the King Soopers grocery store

People comfort each other at a makeshift memorial outside the King Soopers grocery store 

She then heard him walking away from the pharmacy before hearing the voices of police attending to the scene - but she still feared there could be more gunmen. 

Montoya also described her relief when police, rather than a shooter, knocked on the door of her hiding place - saying 'the right people came through the door'. 

Once outside the supermarket, she was reunited with her boyfriend Jordan Carpenter who was among those who had gathered outside the store.  

Meanwhile, Alissa was being taken to hospital after being shot in an exchange of fire with officers. 

Boulder police chief Maris Herold said Alissa would be charged with ten counts of first-degree murder and taken to a county jail.  

Herold did not offer any details on a possible motive for Alissa, whose family emigrated from Syria when he was a toddler in 2002. 

Alissa's booking photo after he was arrested in the wake of the King Soopers rampage

Alissa's booking photo after he was arrested in the wake of the King Soopers rampage 

He had 'lived most of his life in the United States,' police said.

According to US media, citing a non-verified deleted Facebook account in his name, Alissa was born in Syria in 1999 and moved to the United States in 2002.

A now-deleted Facebook account appeared to describe him as a fan of martial arts and wrestling, along with postings about Islam and criticisms of former President Trump

Family and friends described a 'paranoid' and 'anti-social' individual with a history of violence, who may have suffered from mental illness and delusions.

The police chief also read out, one by one, the names of the 10 people killed in the attack, who were men and women aged from 20 to 65. 

They included Boulder police officer Eric Talley, a 51-year-old father of seven, who was the first on the scene.

'Boulder County is a small community - we're all looking over the list. Do we know anybody?' said Colorado governor Jared Polis at a press conference.

'None of them expected that this would be their last day here on the planet.'

Mourners placed dozens of flower bouquets and balloons on Talley's patrol car, which was displayed outside the Boulder Police Department on Tuesday.  

Colorado has previously suffered two of the most infamous mass shootings in US history - at Columbine High School in 1999, and at a movie theater in Aurora in 2012.

The city of Boulder imposed a ban on 'assault-style weapons' and large-capacity gun magazines in the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting in 2018.

But a judge last week blocked that ban, the Denver Post reported, in a decision hailed by the National Rifle Association. 

The suspect, who surrendered a rifle and a semiautomatic handgun at the scene, had purchased a Ruger AR-556 pistol last Tuesday, according to a police affidavit.

He was seen by family members playing with a 'machine gun' at their home 'about two days ago,' it said.

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