A man who helped victims of the Boulder terror attack before police arrived on the scene has spoken about the horror of seeing skin melting off their bodies.
Law enforcement officials have now identified eight victims from Sunday’s attack at Pearl Street Mall during a protest demanding the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Four women and four men aged between 52 and 88 were taken to Denver metro hospitals, at least one of whom was in a critical condition.
Wanting to only be identified as Brian H due to safety concerns, the witness told MSNBC he was having lunch with his family when a woman ran past them shouting that a man was “throwing fire at people.”
He saw the suspect with a tank on his back, carrying a bottle. “I saw fabric coming out of it, and I quickly realized that it was a Molotov cocktail,” Brian said. “One had already exploded right in front of us.”
Brian ran to the courthouse and saw the suspect yelling “F— you Zionists, you’re killing all my people.” After filming the man on his phone in case the police needed identification, he called 911.
“I told her to hurry, there are people literally having the skin melt off their bodies,” Brian said. People were taking buckets of water out of a nearby fountain to pour on the victims “to make them more comfortable” while others were bringing large buckets of iced water from a nearby restaurant to extinguish the flames.
“There was one man, probably in his fifties or sixties, he was in shock,” Brian said. “His leg from his ankle to foot, all the way up to his buttocks was melted. His skin was basically melted off his leg.”
Brian said there were “deep cuts” up to an inch thick in several of the victims with blood “pouring” out of them. He also detailed two elderly women who had been injured “(One) her whole back leg from her calf up to her butt, the skin was falling off the leg. The other woman had burns all over her hands, ankles, feet, elbows. They looked stunned (and) confused.”
Brian said the smell of gasoline at the crime scene was potent. “I thought it initially was alcohol, but I assume it was gasoline, which again singed the pants off of some of these elderly women and the shirt off of one of the women that I can’t really, frankly, I can’t imagine… I hope she survives.”
Police identified the suspect as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian who was arrested at the scene.
The FBI is investigating the attack as a targeted act of terrorism. Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said: “Boulder is not immune to tragedy, sadly, and I know a lot of people are scared right now and questioning how this happened and why. Boulder has recovered from acts of violence before and we will again recover. I urge this community to come together. Now is not the time to be divisive.”
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