In surveillance footage from the home across the street from Ahmad Alissa’s Arvada residence on March 16, 2021, the suspect could be seen pulling a large white box from the trunk of his car.

That was six days before the mass shooting at a Boulder grocery story left 10 dead.

“I know through my training and experience that that box is used to store previously purchased firearms,” Jason Hebrard, an agent in charge with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, told the jury Friday in Alissa’s murder trial in Boulder County.

Alissa faces 10 counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder and six counts of possessing large capacity magazines.

Through the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST) information and pulling from cellular towers pinged by both Alissa’s phone and his black Mercedes sedan, CAST member and Westminster Police Department Detective Chris Pyler was able to pinpoint Alissa at Westminster Arms, a gun store in Arvada, as early as Jan. 19, 2021.

Alissa made two credit card charges at the store that day.

There was another purchase from the same gun store on Feb. 10.

A few weeks later, on Feb. 22, Alissa completed a purchase at Eagles Nest Armory in Arvada, just a few feet away from his place of work.

Alissa then had another transaction at Westminster Arms on March 6, and another at Eagles Nest Armory on March 16, just six days before he stopped by his place of work, went back home and traveled to the King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive in Boulder and allegedly gunned down 10 people, evidence showed.

That March 16 purchase coincides with the surveillance camera footage that Hebrard spoke of to the court, pinpointing that the heavy box Alissa pulled from his car was likely a gun purchased in that transaction.

Documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) confirmed that Alissa purchased the rifle, a Ruger AR-556, from Eagles Nest Armory on that date, according to Joel Hegarty, an agent with ATF that investigated the shooting.

Another trace summary connected a Girsan MC28SA 9mm pistol to Alissa, with the purchase date of Feb. 10 from a website and transferred through Westminster Arms.

Both guns were recovered from the scene of the shooting. All told, Alissa was traced to the purchases of three pistols and one rifle in 2021.

Another neighbor’s security footage then showed Alissa leaving his home around 20 minutes before the shooting occurred, strapped with a black backpack that Hebrard said is often used to carry rifles, with an extended top to conceal the gun’s barrel.

While the footage was being shown to the court, Alissa swiveled in his seat, dressed in a button-up shirt and glasses. Throughout the day, he appeared both uncomfortable and glazed, as if in a dream-like state.

Footage then showed the suspect’s Mercedes heading past a water treatment plant in Arvada before heading north on Highway 93 toward Boulder — a trip that takes around 23 minutes overall, according to Hebrard.

During the footage, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty continued to ask Hebrard if Alissa was acting erratically. Was he driving normally? Was he darting his head when he left his house, as if he had seen something or was looking suspicious?

The questions appeared to push the prosecution’s point: Alissa was not insane at the time of the shooting and he knew right from wrong when he made decisions.

That question remains the focus of the trial.

Alissa pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, though his attorneys have admitted that he was the shooter who killed the people in the store.

Pushing back, Alissa’s attorney, Samuel Dunn of the Colorado Public Defender’s Office, asked Pyler if cellphone data had pinpointed Alissa at the King Soopers prior to the shooting.

Pyler noted that Alissa had allegedly traveled to the area once on Feb. 15, 2021, but only for a brief moment. The defense appeared to suggest that Alissa had not been planning to fire on the King Soopers prior to the day, presumably to strengthen the case for Alissa being “insane” and acting erratically on the day of the mass shooting.

A few minutes prior to the shooting, Alissa’s vehicle passed by the King Soopers and went into a nearby neighborhood. The vehicle drove around and sat in front of a house for around a minute before heading back toward the grocery store, according to Sgt. Aaron Wise with the Boulder Police Department.

Alissa sat in his car in the grocery store parking lot for five minutes before getting out and opening fire, according to security camera footage.

The first victim was 23-year-old Neven Stanisic, who was in the parking lot.

A mother and son

Sarah Moonshadow and her son Nicholas, who was 22 at the time, entered the King Soopers around 2 p.m. on March 22, 2021 to buy strawberries and tea.

Moonshadow was on her way to work in home healthcare.

“It was a spontaneous stop in,” she told the jury. “I was more worried that it was going to run me late. I didn’t think it was going to turn as crazy as it did.”

As the duo were paying in the self-checkout area, Moonshadow heard shots, those of which she identified as rifle fire.

“I started hearing something that I couldn’t wrap my brain around. I knew what I was hearing but I couldn’t process that I was hearing it,” she said.

Her son turned to her and said: “That’s a gun.”

He looked to her as if a scared baby boy, Moonshadow said through tears.

“I said, ‘I know. Get down.’”

Both ducked down. When they realized the shooter was moving in their direction quickly, just feet behind them, they ran, exiting the store.

The son dragged her to the other side of the street as she panicked, wondering what to do and how to help.

Prosecutors showed a photo from inside of the King Soopers to the court — Moonshadow and her son. Moonshadow was running toward the door, while her son was still on all four, preparing to lurch.

The shooter was about an aisle behind them, rifle raised.

Alissa fidgeted in his seat as the photo was shown.

“I was hearing gunfire and bodies dropping. I heard a couple of people making noises I can’t even describe,” Moonshadow said, pausing to keep her composure. “It’s like one minute there was normal activity, people around us, then all of sudden there was nobody.”

Elan Shakti, who was at the King Soopers at the time of the shooting, recounted her experience to the court on Friday, as well.

Shakti fell during the scuffle after hearing “firecracker” noises and a worker yelling for everyone to leave. Shakti landed on her face, immobilizing her.

“I knew I needed to get out and get up, but I wasn’t able to move,” she said to the jury with her eyes shut tight. “I couldn’t open my eyes. I couldn’t shout, I couldn’t talk. The only thing I could do was hear, and that was enough.”

Luckily, a young man helped Shakti up and out of the building.

“They looked like him, sir,” Hadyn Steele said after being asked what the shooter looked like, pointing toward Alissa in his seat.

Steele had been in the store shopping with his roommate when the shooting occurred.

The trial, which will continue Monday, is scheduled for three weeks.