BOULDER, Colo. — Elan Shakti was tired and had trouble walking but decided to go to the supermarket anyway to buy plants for a family mourning.
But as she was buying them, Shakti, now 79, heard gunfire ring out and then someone yell for people to run. Shakti, who had recently been diagnosed with a heart condition, knew she couldn’t do that but left behind the cart she had been using for support and tried to make her way out of the King Soopers store as fast as she could.
That is when she fell and couldn’t move, having suffered a broken vertebrae, she testified Friday during a trial for a man accused of killing 10 people at the store in the college town of Boulder, Colorado.
“I said ’God, I hope you’re ready for me because I think this is it,′” Shakti said.
After she heard people rushing past her, Shakti said she also prayed not to be trampled as she was lying there on her chest. Later, she didn’t sense anyone around but still heard shots and thought the shooter was coming toward her. Instead, a man helped lift her up and take her outside to safety.
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa is charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of attempted murder and other offenses, including having six high-capacity ammunition magazine devices banned in Colorado after previous mass shootings.
Alissa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. No one, including Alissa’s lawyers, disputes he was the shooter.
Despite Shakti’s fear, prosecutors say Alissa targeted people who were moving and trying to get away from him, saying that gave him a sense of power and a rush of adrenaline. In one case, they say he saw but then passed by an elderly man who continued to shop, not realizing there was a shooting underway.
Sarah Moonshadow also testified Friday about how she and her son had been in a rush to buy strawberries and tea at a self-checkout stand when the shooting started. Her son, now 25, wanted to run immediately. But she told him to wait, listening for a pause from the gunman from having to reload before fleeing. She ducked down with her son at the kiosk, hearing gunfire and bodies dropping.
She said Alissa looked at her and was trying to raise the end of his rifle up but seemed to bump into a platform at a register. She said she told her son to go and they ran, not moving in a straight line to avoid being hit.
“I think I was just moving and not thinking about anything else,” Moonshadow said.
Moonshadow and her son are among 14 civilians Alissa is accused of attempting to kill by firing at or near them. He is also accused of attempting to kill 11 law enforcement officers.