Multiple people set on fire in what FBI calls "targeted terrorist attack" in Boulder, Colo.

Multiple people were burned, some severely, in an attack Sunday on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall during a vigil calling on Hamas to release Israeli hostages.

The FBI director characterized the incident as a “targeted terror attack,” although Boulder police said it was too early in their investigation to confirm a motive.

One person, an unidentified man whom bystanders pointed out to officers, was arrested, Boulder police Chief Steve Redfearn said. Investigators are working to identify the suspect, he added.

The Anti-Defamation League said on social media that it was aware of an attack on an event called Boulder Run for Their Lives — which it said was “a weekly meeting of Jewish community members to run/walk in support of the hostages kidnapped on 10/7,” a reference to Hamas’ large-scale attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Several people were injured in the attack, which occurred near the Boulder County Historic Courthouse at Pearl and 13th streets in downtown, the Boulder Police Department said on social media.

Redfearn was unable to specify the number of people who were hurt, but said in a Sunday afternoon news briefing that the extent of their injuries ranged from minor to life-threatening.

A video posted on social media by one bystander shows a woman lying on the ground as others pour water on her.

“He’s right there, he’s throwing Molotov cocktails right there,” one person can be heard saying to police, who then approach and handcuff a shirtless man holding multiple glass bottles on the lawn near the fountain in front of the courthouse.

A burn mark and shattered glass are shown next to that lawn in the video. An earlier video captured smoke and screams erupting from that area, a burning bottle on the ground and several collapsed people.

Later, a Reddit user posted photos and videos of a woman with a burned leg sitting on the lawn with paramedics, another person being loaded onto a stretcher, and people gathered in front of the building, now blocked with crime tape.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media that federal agents were on scene working with local law enforcement.

But Redfearn disagreed with the FBI’s classification of the attack as a “targeted terror attack.”

“Once we have a clear motive, we will react accordingly,” he said, noting it was too early in the investigation to confirm a motive. “If that motive was a group was targeted, we will absolutely step up and ensure that additional security, additional presence. We want people to feel safe.”

The attack happened just before 1:30 p.m. Sunday outside of the courthouse, Redfearn said. Multiple callers reported a man with a weapon and people being set on fire.

Investigators were aware of a pro-Israel demonstration in the area, but they haven’t been able to confirm if that group was targeted, Redfearn said.

‘It was like this fireball’

Lynn Segal, who witnessed the attack, said she knows one of the victims and described her as an elderly woman.

“It was like this fireball… it’s almost like it was a gun of fire,” Segal said. “It’s like a line of fire. It was coming from (my) right.”

Segal said she’s pro-Palestinian but regularly joins the weekly demonstrations with Israeli supporters in a show of solidarity for the release of hostages.

Johanna Schmidt was driving with her children to meet her parents on Pearl Street to participate in the walk for Israeli hostages held in Gaza. When Schmidt texted her mother to tell her she was on the way, her mother called her and said someone had thrown a “Molotov cocktail” — and that Schmidt’s father’s leg had been burned.

Schmidt left her kids with friends and went to find her father. The scene near the courthouse was “chaotic,” with emergency vehicles already on site. She saw one person being loaded into an ambulance.

She found her dad, who was waiting for his wife to return with the car so they could go to the hospital. He had a second-degree burn to his leg, Schmidt said, but he was conscious and walking.

Schmidt said the attack was “absolutely horrific and shocking.” She said her parents, whose names she asked to be withheld, described “lots of other victims who were worse off” than her father at the hospital.

“While we did not expect something like this to happen in Boulder, sadly, we are not surprised,” Schmidt said in an email. “This is not an isolated event. It is part of a broader pattern in which our sense of safety is steadily eroding.”

Schmidt linked the attack to the recent killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and the fire set at the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish. In a statement Sunday, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder drew a similar connection to what he called “a broader wave of hate.”

“It is not just the Jewish community that suffers,” Lauder wrote. “This violence tears at the very fabric of our societies. We call on law enforcement and government leaders — at every level, in every state, in every country — to act decisively.”

Xale Chartier was heading to a downtown parking structure when he saw first responders lining 13th Street on Sunday afternoon. His first thought was that there was some kind of mass-casualty incident.

By the time he got to the courthouse, a few people were still being treated by paramedics and he could see an oily residue on the ground, along with flags and shoes scattered nearby, he said.

“It was a very grim and unsettling scene,” Chartier said. “I grew up in Boulder and I’ve never experienced anything quite like that.”

The experience left him thinking about the need for more love and kindness in the world, he said.

“Different opinions and ideologies are valid, but we need each other and we need peace,” he said.

Alexandra Posnack, 19, was at her Boulder home about five minutes away from Pearl Street when friends at the scene started texting her that someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at the group holding the weekly demonstration calling for the release of Israeli hostages.

“I’m horrified and I’m also enraged, and I will be back here next week to protest with my big-ass Israeli flag,” she said.

Terror supporters mean to instill fear, but Posnack said she refuses to let that happen.

“(Jews) can’t afford to be scared,” she said.

Brandon Hoover, 28, said the attack doesn’t seem real.

He and his girlfriend were walking down Pearl Street when suddenly there were flames and “the smell of flesh,” he said.

There was panic in the immediate aftermath, he recalled, and he heard people yelling to run as others stood by. He thinks they may not have known what happened.

“I thought, ‘Holy crap, that could have been any one of us on Pearl Street,’” Hoover said. “…Once you see something that traumatic, it’s going to stick with you.”

Boulder resident Henry Bonn-Elchones, 18, was downtown getting lunch with friends when he saw smoke and burn marks and an Israeli flag on the ground by the courthouse.

He never heard an explosion, but a few minutes later, Bonn-Elchones saw agents from the FBI, CIA, National Guard and Army flood Pearl Street, he said.

He saw two older women being loaded into ambulances, but they didn’t appear to have serious injuries, he said.

He wasn’t forced away from the scene, but police “strongly encouraged” him and his friends to leave.

Bonn-Elchones was 13 when a gunman killed 10 people at a Boulder King Soopers and recalled the mass shooting as he stood a few feet away from crime-scene tape and flashing police lights.

“It’s crazy that Boulder seems to be going through a lot of trouble right now,” he said.

‘Heinous act of terror’

Gov. Jared Polis characterized the Boulder incident as a “heinous act of terror.”

“Hate-filled acts of any kind are unacceptable,” Polis said in a statement on social media. “While details emerge, the state works with local and federal law enforcement to support this investigation.”

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette, called for Americans to stop the spread of antisemitism.

“Tonight, as many prepare to mark the Shavuot holiday, our Jewish community has been subjected to yet another brutal and horrific act of violence,” said the congressman, whose district includes Boulder. “We stand with the Jewish community — today and always — and will be united in supporting the victims and their families, and to redoubling our efforts to stop antisemitism.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser wrote in a statement that the attack appears to be a hate crime and that he had offered his office’s support to Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

“People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences,” he wrote. “… We all have the right to peaceably assemble and the freedom to speak our views. But these violent acts — which are becoming more frequent, brazen, and closer to home — must stop and those who commit these horrific acts must be fully held to account.”

The University of Colorado Boulder, in a statement, condemned the “heinous crime,” noting that it “stands ready to assist our Boulder City and County partners and will be there to support the greater Boulder community in the difficult days ahead.”

Parts of Pearl Street, including the 1200 through 1500 blocks, were evacuated Sunday, according to the police department. The evacuated area runs from Pine Street to the north, 16th Street to the east, Walnut Street to the south and Broadway to the west.

That section of the mall remained closed to the public as police cleared the area and investigated a “vehicle of interest,” Redfearn said.

This is a developing story and will be updated. 

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