BOULDER, Colo. — One of the 15 people injured in the firebombing attack on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall shared a message of strength during a community vigil Wednesday.
On Sunday afternoon, the local group from the organization Run For Their Lives held its weekly walk to bring attention to the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The Boulder 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 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 labeled a “targeted terror attack.”
- JEWISHcolorado has set up a fund to help those who were injured in Sunday's attack. If you'd like to donate, follow this link.
Initially, authorities said eight people had been injured and hospitalized. This increased on Monday after four additional victims were identified. On Wednesday, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office announced the number of victims had increased again to 15 people and one dog.
The victims range from 25 to 88 years old. Eight of them are women and seven are men, the FBI Denver office confirmed.
Three days after the attack, community members, elected officials, and various faith leaders came together at Boulder's Jewish Community Center (JCC) for a vigil. Denver7 listened to the vigil, with permission from organizers, to learn how the community is healing from the June 1 tragedy.
“Look around. This is what it means to come together,” said Jonathan Lev, the executive director of Boulder’s JCC, as the room rose from their seats.
One of the speakers Wednesday night was a person who was injured in Sunday's attack. Denver7 is not sharing their identity or any identifying features in order to protect their privacy.
The person recalled the moment the attack began.
"I heard a loud noise, and the back of my legs [were] burning," they said. "[I] don’t remember those next few moments."
Rachelle Halpern, a member of Run for Their Lives, was also on Pearl Street Mall Sunday and told the crowd of her experience.
"Suddenly, a crash, a ball of fire, the smell of black smoke, screams, flames around my feet," Halpern recalled. “The woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground."
Halpern said she was able to escape the flames.
"For a moment, I thought I would go up in flames," she said. "I managed to get out. I was not hurt physically."
The unidentified victim, however, was unable to escape. They spoke of their healing, both physical and mental, in the 72 hours since the incident.
"These last few days have been hard," they told the crowd. "I feel stressed at every moment. I have horrible regrets for what I could have done or should have done and didn’t. Everything feels heavy."
They also shared a powerful message.
"I will walk again. We will walk again," they said.
Roughly four miles away from the JCC, a memorial of flowers and Israeli flags continues to grow on the Pearl Street Mall. Illene Naomi Rusk stopped by the site on Wednesday to honor those who were injured and the Jewish community as a whole.
"I came to honor the ones who are suffering, the ones who experienced the terrorist attack, and those who are feeling the reverberations of that because so many people are," said Rusk. "There's lots of trauma happening in the world right now, and Jewish people have really experienced a different kind of hate right now."
Rusk told Denver7 she hopes the outpouring of support, from the memorial to the vigil, offers a bit of comfort to the victims and the Jewish community as a whole.
“My wish is that we grow stronger through this and that people realize that hate, aggression, [and] violence will not get us any further,” she said.
Also on Wednesday, the historic Boulder County Courthouse, where Sunday's attack occurred, was lit blue to honor the 15 victims.
In a release, organizers said the display was a result of collaboration between the Israeli-American Council (IAC) Colorado, State Senator Dafna Michaelson Jenet and the City and County of Boulder.
“This is a powerful statement of unity and stand against antisemitism in response to the horrific terror attack in Boulder,” said IAC Colorado Regional Director Eldad Malka in a prepared statement.
