Speaker 1 (00:00):
The FBI shares in the sorrow of the Boulder community, especially to those who have family or friends injured.In this tragedy. We have surged resources and personnel to the scene. Our special agents, our victim specialists and evidence response teams are doing everything they can to assist our law enforcement partners. In the coming days, we will continue to support the victims and help uncover the events leading up to this terrible attack. Know that we stand with you, we grieve with you, and we are here to help for as long as it takes. We're early in the investigation, but some details have emerged. I'm able to confirm there are six victims, ages 67 to 88. All of them have been transported to local hospitals. This attack happened at a regularly scheduled weekly, peaceful event. Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd. The suspect was heard to yell free Palestine during the attack.
(01:09)
The subject has been identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, and he's 45 years old. The FBI is processing the crime scene in the subject vehicle and interviewing key witnesses. We're assisting Boulder Police in providing technical analytic and additional forensic resources. As a result of these preliminary facts, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence in the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism. Sadly, attacks like this are becoming too common across the country. This is an example of how perpetrators of violence continue to threaten communities across our nation. It's our job, the FBI, the Boulder Police, and our law enforcement and community partners to bring these criminals to justice and keep our communities safe.
(01:59)
We're asking for the public's help as we continue to investigate this horrific act of violence. I'll direct anyone that has phone calls, that wants to make phone calls to 1-800-CALLFBI, and if you have digital evidence, whether that is video or social media posts or anything that can help the investigators, please send that to Fbi.gov/boulderattack, B-O-U-L-D-E-R-A-T-T-A-C-K. Our strength as a society comes from our shared values and our commitment to protecting one another. Any attempt to divide us through fear or harm has no place in Boulder, in Colorado, or anywhere in our nation. We stand in full solidarity with those targeted, and we will continue to ensure that justice is pursued swiftly, that support is provided to victims and their communities, and preventative action is taken to protect everyone's safety. And I'll turn it over to Boulder Police Chief Redfearn.
Stephen Redfearn (03:08):
Thank you, special agent in charge. As was mentioned, my name is Stephen Redfearn. I serve as the police chief here in Boulder. I want to thank first and foremost the FBI for their swift response today and our partnerships which preceded this attack today. We are very grateful for their assistance and will be working hand in hand moving forward. I want to give first an update on the scene. As many of you are aware, we have several blocks closed off in downtown Boulder surrounding the courthouse. We are still clearing that area for devices. We have multiple teams of canine and our bomb squad and hazmat teams in that area. I cannot at this point give you a time, an estimated time for opening of that area downtown where hopefully it will be this evening. We understand that people's vehicles are in that area that's closed and they'd like to get them.
(04:02)
Please follow the Boulder Police Twitter account or other social media as well. We will report on that when we open that area. We want to be reasonably sure as best as we can before we open the area and let people go back there to businesses to get their vehicles that it is as safe as possible. The courthouse, I will announce, the courthouse will be closed tomorrow. There is business in that courthouse through the Boulder County. It will be closed tomorrow as we continue this investigation. Just a couple of mentions. We know there's other events including things going on this evening in town and in the coming week, and we are ensuring that we have resources there at those events to ensure that people are able to go about their business safely in light of this attack. But as always, we urge people to call 911, call us if they see suspicious behavior, if they see someone that's acting in a manner that appears to be suspicious, we would like to receive that call, go out and verify whether somebody's behavior is malicious or not.
(05:06)
I want to thank our law enforcement partners. I started by thanking the FBI, but when this call came out today, we asked for help from all of our partnering agencies, some of whom are here today, and I can't thank you enough. It's not the first time we've had to do that here in Boulder, and it's not the first time that we've had to do that in the metro area. And the special agent in charge reference partnerships, when we put out the call today, we had a lot of help both locally and from the region, and I really can't thank our partners enough. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the first responders today. When this call came out today, our officers rushed as quickly as they could somewhere close to the area, and they immediately ran into a chaotic situation where a man was throwing Molotov cocktails and using other devices to hurt people.
(05:51)
Our officers, as they're trained, immediately interacted with the suspect, took him into custody, and then began rendering aid to those victims. And I'm very proud of our response today. I'm very proud of our partners, as well with the fire department, as well as American Medical Response. Before we take some questions, I just want to say that Boulder is not immune to tragedy, sadly, and I know a lot of people are scared right now. A lot of people are upset and questioning how this happened and why. All I know is Boulder has recovered before from acts of violence and we will again recover.
(06:30)
I urge the community in this time to come together. Now is not the time to be divisive, and we will continue to ensure community safety along with all of our partners. To echo the special agent in charge comments, our hearts go out to everyone affected today here and in Colorado. We understand that this has a ripple effect in many communities, and we are continuing to stand with and support the victims affected today by this attack. With that, I think we'll turn it back over to our public information officers.
Vicky (07:09):
We've got time for a few questions. I'll call on some folks.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Vicky, I have a question for Special Agent Michalek. Is there any information that could indicate that this individual that is in custody is linked to a greater network or any particular group?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Not at this time. The subject is in custody, but this will be a thorough and complete investigation and those checks are ongoing.
Vicky (07:38):
Colleen.
Colleen (07:39):
Could you please tell us the spelling of this suspect's name and what custody is in? Is he going to face federal charges or state charges? What's next for him?
Vicky (07:49):
I've got it in here.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
His name is spelled Mohamed, M-O-H-A-M-E-D, Sabry, S-A-B-R-Y, Soliman, S-O-L-I-M-A-N. And we are early in the investigative process. Both teams are working side by side collaboratively, and we'll see where the investigation goes.
Vicky (08:24):
Yeah. [inaudible 00:08:26].
Speaker 6 (08:26):
For the chief, any update on victims' conditions, how they're doing?
Stephen Redfearn (08:33):
Yes, and I'm not sure if we stated prior, but it's been reported to us that the victims' age ranged from about 67 to 88. I believe we mentioned. We know that four of those victims were taken to Boulder Community Hospital and remain there or have been released. I don't know the status of that. Two additional victims were airlifted to the Denver Metro area, I believe to Aurora Hospital Burn Unit. At this time, all six victims are still being treated, and again, our thoughts are heavily focused on their recovery right now.
Speaker 7 (09:10):
Anything on the conditions of anyone?
Stephen Redfearn (09:12):
So the question was about the condition of the victims. The last update I had is that at least one victim was very seriously injured, probably safe to say critical condition, and then other victims received more minor injuries. I think there's a wide range, but I'm not, we haven't talked to doctors yet and gotten an actual rundown of specific injuries.
Speaker 7 (09:35):
That doesn't include the suspect, does it?
Stephen Redfearn (09:35):
The suspect was injured. The suspect was taken to the hospital and he was examined there as well. I'm not sure if he's been taken to the correctional facility yet or not.
Vicky (09:44):
One more question.
Colleen (09:45):
There are people online who interviewed witnesses that say there was a second attacker. Can you speak to that at all?
Stephen Redfearn (09:52):
What I can say, and I will say that I've been involved in several of these mass casualty events in my career, and there is almost always reports of multiple suspects. It's very typical. We did receive reports of differing descriptions. From everything we know in the witness briefings and interviews that we've done at this point, we do not believe that there is an additional suspect at large. We're not going to say that with absolute certainty because we're still conducting a lot of interviews, but we believe that the initial report of two suspects, we have not been able to confirm that and we're fairly confident we have the lone suspect in custody.
Vicky (10:32):
All right, so we also had a question about the prosecution. Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty is present and can elaborate a little bit on that. I'll turn the mic over to him at this time.
Michael Dougherty (10:47):
Good evening. I'm Michael Dougherty. I'm the district attorney for Boulder County. And first, I want to echo what the chief and the special agent in charge said. Our hearts go out to the victims, their loved ones, and our community. I also want to recognize the community members who responded and tried to render aid in the moments after this horrific attack took place, as well as who helped law enforcement, which acted with great courage in apprehending the suspect who is now in custody. I will emphasize that we're in the very early stages here, but the response by federal, state, and local officials is underway. And I greatly appreciate the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There are many agents. We have the Colorado State Patrol here, Boulder County Sheriff's Office, and of course the Boulder Police Department. They're working hand-in-hand to ensure that we secure all the evidence, all the information, and all the witness statements we need to hold the attacker fully accountable.
(11:42)
That is my promise, to hold the attacker fully accountable. The US Attorney's office and my office have a strong working relationship. We've worked on cases in the past, and as you know, when it's a mass attack, whether it be King Soopers, Club Q, Planned Parenthood, the list goes on and on. And unfortunately and tragically, that list is too long for the state of Colorado. But from those experiences, we have forged really strong working relationships and ensuring that we do everything possible, everything we can do and need to do to secure justice for the victims, their family members, and the Boulder community, as well as the state of Colorado. So we're in close communication with the US Attorney's office. The US Attorney and I just spoke on the phone again now, and in the coming days, decisions will be made about what charges to file and where. There's a couple of different options. But what I would stress now most importantly, is we are fully united 100% in making sure the charges we bring hold the attacker fully accountable. Thank you very much.
Vicky (12:46):
All right. All right. Thank you all for coming. The Boulder Police Department and the FBI will summarize some of what was said at this news conference and we'll have a news release we'll put out on our social media accounts later this evening. We don't anticipate another press conference tonight. Thank you. [inaudible 00:13:13].
