Alissa, who emigrated from Syria with his family as a child, began acting strangely in 2019, believing he was being followed by the FBI, talking to himself and isolating from the rest of the family, Ahidid said. His condition declined after he got Covid several months before the shooting, she said, adding he also became “fat” and stopped showering as much.
There was no record of Alissa being treated for mental illness before the shooting. After the shooting, his family later reported that he had been acting in strange ways, like breaking a car key fob and putting tape over a laptop camera because he thought the devices were being used to track him. Some relatives thought he could be possessed by an evil spirit, or djinn, according to the defense.
No one, including Alissa's lawyers, disputes he was the shooter. Alissa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting. The defense says he should be found not guilty because he was legally insane and not able to tell the difference between right and wrong at the time of the shooting.
Prosecutors and forensic psychologists who evaluated him for the court say that, while mentally ill, Alissa knew what he was doing when he launched the attack. They point to the planning and research he did to prepare for it and his fear that he could end up in jail afterward to show that Alissa knew what he was doing was wrong.
Alissa mostly looked down as his mother testified and photographs of him as a happy toddler and a teenager at the beach were shown on screen. There was no obvious exchange between mother and son in court but Alissa dabbed his eyes with a tissue after she left.
The psychiatrist in charge of Alissa's treatment at the state mental hospital testified earlier in the day that Alissa refused to accept visitors during his over two year stay there.
When questioned by District Attorney Michael Dougherty, Ahidid said her son did not tell her what he was planning to do the day of the shooting.
She said she thought a large package containing a rifle that Alissa came home with shortly before the shooting may have been a piano.
“I swear to God we didn’t know what was inside that package,” she said.
Dougherty pointed out that she had told investigators soon after the shooting that she thought it could be a violin.
After being reminded of a previous statement to police, Ahidid acknowledged that she had heard a banging sound in the house and one of her other sons said that Alissa had a gun that had jammed. Alissa said he would return it, she testified.
She indicated that no one in the extended family that lived together in the home followed up to make sure, saying “everyone has their own job.”
“No one is free for anyone,” she said.