A Boulder judge said the man accused for the 2021 King Soopers massacre will not undergo another medical evaluation for his mental fitness to stand trial.

Instead, the court will hold a hearing intended for the judge to decide if the defendant is competent to move forward in his case.

The next court date, called a competence restoration hearing, will be scheduled for three days and has to take place by Oct. 3, Boulder County District Court Judge Ingrid Bakke said in a status hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 24, has been considered incompetent to face the case against him since late 2021 and undergone treatment from state doctors at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo. However, a report submitted by his treatment providers this month indicated they believe he is now fit to stand trial.

The defendant is accused of killing 10 people on March 22, 2021 at King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive. He faces more than 100 charges and sentence enhancers, including 10 charges of first-degree murder, counts of attempted murder and charges related to possessing banned high-capacity gun magazines.

The victims killed were Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Teri Leiker, 51; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; Jody Waters, 65; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; and, Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley.

Competence means a person charged with a crime has the ability to rationally understand the legal proceedings against them and can assist in their own defense. It’s not related to a person’s mental state at the time the incident for which they are accused occurred, and is a separate issue from sanity, which refers to a person’s ability to tell right from wrong at the time of the incident.

The accused shooter has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, court filings have revealed, and has undergone forcible medication since earlier this year.

Public defender Kathryn Herold argued for another competence evaluation for the accused shooter in Tuesday’s hearing. She said she does not believe Alissa has been restored to competence and asked Bakke to grant another evaluation following the most recent report from his doctors, given repeated previous findings that he has been unfit to face the case against him.

“Mr. Alissa is profoundly mentally ill,” she said, adding his mental illness has hampered her ability to help him in his case.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty asked Bakke to deny the request. He said several times the delays in the case that have now stretched on for years have caused the victims’ families “outrage, frustration and pure exhaustion.”

“To these victims, this is the most important case in the world, of course,” he said in court.

The restoration hearing, which now seems inevitable to happen in the fall, has twice been set and then rescheduled. Earlier this month, prosecutors and Alissa’s defense attorneys filed a request to reschedule the hearing that most recently was set to start Tuesday because they had not yet received the state hospital’s most recent report on the defendant’s treatment progress.

Bakke said her decision to go forward with a competence restoration hearing was influenced by the expectation that both sides have prepared extensively already. She will make the final determination about Alissa’s fitness for trial.

He officially remains incompetent until she makes a finding otherwise, and at least for the time being will remain at the state hospital for treatment.

“He is not found competent until I say so,” she said.

Bakke also tentatively set a probable cause hearing for the case at 9 a.m. on Nov. 14.

Robert Olds, uncle to Rikki Olds, told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing he’s cautiously optimistic that the case will now move forward. He said he’s grateful to the district attorney for the pursuit of justice for victims.

“It’s the anticipation of a little piece of justice coming down the road, hopefully,” he said.

Olds said he has continuously gone to therapy to process his feelings. The expectation that he will see his niece again, the waiting for her to come through is door just to say hello as she often did, has lessened with time, he said.

But he said he still feels a keen sense of “just missing her being around, and thinking about different family events or holidays (and) her not being there. And what could have been, what should have been, with her still here.”