The Boulder shooter, Syrian-born Ahmad Al Issa, moved out of the war-torn country along with his family to the United States in 2002, in the hopes of leading a comfortable life but was radicalized in his growing up years which eventually led him to a shooting spree that killed 10 people in Boulder, Colorado.
The King Soopers grocery store rampage shocked the country as innocent lives were lost. Ahmad's classmate Kayli Porterfield, who was a student manager on the Arvada West High School wrestling team, said that the shooter was also a part of the wrestling team for a brief moment back then.
Porterfield told CBS4 reporter Jacqueline Quynh that Ahmad was harassed regularly by other classmates as his hair was getting bald early and had heard students bullying him on campus for being Muslim.
He revealed that Ahmad faced racist hurls constantly and in a fit of rage, he had threatened to kill everyone but no one took him seriously. "He threatened he was going to kill everyone, but no one took it seriously cause we are all high school and we say stupid things," said Porterfield.
Porterfield continued: "I have heard of people bullying him because he was balding really early on and I heard of claims that he was bullied because he was a Muslim. He said something about how if anyone said anything about him being a Muslim, he would file a hate crime and everything like that."
A police officer who was on duty at the school was asked if he knew Ahmad was being bullied in school and the officer denied any such claims. ''Never been informed of the allegations that (the students) called him racist names or made fun of him," said the officer to CBS4.
Also, another student told the police that Ahmad was involved in a brawl with his classmate in November, 2017, as he was angry at being called a terrorist. He said the student had "called him racist names, called him a terrorist."
Ahmad's mental health is in the focus now and is he to appear in court in Boulder on Thursday and would be advised that he is facing 10 counts of first-degree murder for his actions.
