BOULDER, Colo. — Three people who were injured in the attack on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall Sunday were transported to UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital for further treatment.
On Sunday afternoon, the Boulder chapter of the organization Run For Their Lives held its weekly walk to bring attention to the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The group walks every Sunday and planned to do so at 1 p.m. at the corner of 8th and Pearl streets. Sunday was the start of the Jewish holiday Shavuot.
The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, of Colorado Springs, is accused of throwing Molotov cocktails into the crowd of demonstrating people, injuring 12 of them, and yelling "Free Palestine," according to a federal arrest affidavit Denver7 obtained and Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty. A state arrest affidavit added that witnesses saw him using a commercial weed sprayer filled with a flammable substance as a makeshift blowtorch.
Nobody was killed in the incident, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has called a “targeted terror attack.”
Omer Shacha, the co-organizer for the Boulder chapter of Run for Their Lives, said the peaceful walk Sunday afternoon was not political, was not even religious, but was simply for a humanitarian cause.
"It doesn't matter the weather, if it's snow, if it's rain, hot, we are always there because it's something important to us," he told Denver7 on Monday. "We were ready to take [a] picture and read the names of their hostages, and then the Molotov cocktail has been thrown at us, under the legs of the people. So the flames just went up and caught their clothes."
Shacha said an elderly woman fell into the flames during the chaos.
"She's 88 years old, fell from the panic. She was over the flame. We tried to pull her away. It was very, very slippery because of the fire, because of the heat, and trying to put the fire out," Shacha said.
The group and law enforcement have not released the names of the victims. UCHealth on Monday declined to give an update on the three patients who are still in the hospital, citing patient privacy. However, the hospital group did provide a statement about its Burn and Frostbite Center and how doctors treat burn injuries.
"Depending on if it's a thickness burn, like a third-degree burn, they may need surgical treatment, which would include removal of the burned skin with skin grafting," explained Dr. Cameron Gibson.
As the healing continues inside the hospital, the community is hoping for the same outside.
"People can raise their flag whatever they want. They can raise their voice for their values. You can not agree with that. This is our American values, but we should not approach violence," said Shacha.
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