POLICE said a male suspect was taken into custody on Sunday after an attack that left multiple people with burns in Boulder, Colorado, in what the FBI director described as a "targeted" act of terror.
Reuters reported information on the attack, which occurred near a demonstration to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza, was “very preliminary,” Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said. But he noted the man was apprehended following calls to police dispatch of someone with a weapon who was “setting people on fire.”
FBI Director Kash Patel described the incident as a "targeted terror attack," and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said it appeared to be "a hate crime given the group that was targeted." But Redfearn stressed it was too soon to speculate about a motive.
“We are not calling it a terror attack at this moment,” Redfearn said, noting that victims sustained burns.
“This was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in downtown Boulder on Pearl Street and this act was unacceptable,” he said. “I ask that you join me in thinking about the victims, the families of those victims, and everyone involved in this tragedy.”
The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the United States over Israel's war in Gaza, which has spurred both an increase in antisemitic hate crime as well as moves by conservative supporters of Israel led by President Donald Trump to brand pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic. His administration has detained protesters of the war without charge and cut off funding to elite U.S. universities that have permitted such demonstrations.
Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old at the University of Colorado who witnessed the Boulder incident, said she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns on their legs. One of them appeared to have been badly burned on most of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, she said.
She described seeing a man whom she presumed to be the attacker standing in the courtyard shirtless, holding a glass bottle of clear liquid and shouting.
"Everybody is yelling, 'get water, get water,'" Coffman said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a prominent Jewish Democrat, said he was closely monitoring the situation.
"This is horrifying, and this cannot continue. We must stand up to antisemitism."
The attack follows last month's arrest of a Chicago-born man in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C. Someone opened fire on a group of people leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.
The shooting fueled polarization in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis posted on social media that it was "unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack here in Boulder."
Redfearn said he was not able to identify the suspect yet, noting that he had been taken to hospital. He added there were multiple injuries among the victims, ranging “from very serious to more minor." - June 2, 2025
