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FBI Investigating "Targeted Terrorist Attack" In Outdoor Mall in BOULDER, Colorado. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired June 01, 2025 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:48]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.
And we do have breaking news to bring to you as FBI Director Kash Patel says the FBI is, quote, "aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado."
I want to go now to CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones and CNN's senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem. They're both with us.
Julia, tell us first what we know about this.
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is still a developing situation. We are expecting the Boulder Police to make a statement in just minutes, Jessica, to give us more details on what exactly happened. We do know that this was an incident that's being investigated as an act of terror and targeted violence. Targeted as we're learning now, according to the ADL posting on their X page that this was a gathering, quote, "a weekly meeting of the Jewish community members there to run, walk in support of hostages kidnaped on October 7th."
That is when -- where the attack took place as this walk run was taking place this afternoon in Boulder, Colorado. And they're monitoring the situation as they are approaching a Jewish holiday this week as well.
DEAN: OK, Julia, keep us updated on all of these developments as we get them because, again, this is still breaking and we are expecting, as Julia noted, to hear from Boulder Police momentarily. We will bring that to you when that happens.
In the meantime, Juliette, I do want to go to you. Look, just another day in America where we have some sort of attack. It appears on a Jewish community, a Jewish gathering. What might the investigation start to look like? And what are authorities kind of going through at this moment?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. So, and this looks like, just the pictures we're seeing, it looks like a significant police presence. So this isn't with block, you know, sort of blockades of streets so we don't have information about the numbers or whether there was any violence.
With Kash Patel sort of -- the FBI director coming out ahead and sort of already signifying that this is a targeted terror attack, that would suggest that they have information about who the perpetrators were and what their motivation was which is clearly antisemitic or anti-Israeli depending on or in terms of who we understand the group was that was meeting.
Unfortunately it is too typical in this country now. We saw the killing of two Israeli diplomats just about a week plus ago. And Jewish community gatherings have had increased security for this reason. So we'll learn more about what the nature of the attack is because it would suggest, at least by Kash Patel coming out so quickly that there was some violence. And we just don't know at this stage. But obviously scary for the Jewish community.
But we have to be super careful about getting ahead because we just don't know the nature of it except for what ADL has disclosed, the Anti-Defamation League, and the FBI.
DEAN: Right. And that's what we're trying to do is get more facts around this. We do have a tweet or a post on X, rather, from Dan Bongino, the deputy direct of the FBI. I want to pull that up and we can read it to everyone.
"FBI personnel are on the scene in Boulder, Colorado, along with local law enforcement. We are investigating this incident as an act of terror and targeted violence. All of the necessary assets will be dedicated to this investigation. If you have any investigative tips, please contact the FBI. And if you aided or abetted this attack, we will find you. You cannot hide."
Again, that's coming from the deputy director of the FBI. I think we have the news conference now. We can listen in to what they're saying.
KAYYEM: OK. Thanks.
STEPHEN REDFEARN, BOULDER POLICE CHIEF: The county courthouse located at 1325 Pearl Street here in Boulder. The initial caller indicated that there was a man with a weapon and that people were being set on fire. The initial response by our officers, we were on scene very quickly. When we arrived we encountered multiple victims that were injured with injuries consistent with burns and other injuries.
[18:05:07]
While our officers and paramedics and fire department personnel got those victims quickly to the hospital, our officers were pointed out -- a suspect was pointed out to our officers on the scene. Our officers immediately encountered that suspect who was taken into custody without incident. That suspect who I'm not able to I.D. at this time was taken to the hospital with some minor injuries as well. And there's a lot more we're investigating right now before I'm able to release information on that person. The scene itself is contained, but we have a large area here in
downtown Boulder closed off right now. Businesses have been closed, and we have asked people to avoid the area. It is not -- this area is not safe yet. We're dealing with a vehicle of interest. We're dealing with a large area that we are making sure it's safe before we allow people to come back into the scene. If your vehicle is here in the several block perimeter that we have, please follow our social media. We will announce when the roads are open and people can retrieve their vehicle as well. I appreciate everyone's patience as we work through this complex scene.
What I will say lastly is this was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in downtown Boulder on Pearl Street and this act is unacceptable. We -- I hope you'll join me this evening as we're working through this investigation. We are working -- I just came from the command post. We've got dozens and dozens of people here. Our state, local and federal partners working through this to figure out exactly what happened.
I ask for a little bit of patience as we do that, but also I ask that you join me in thinking about our victims, the families of those victims, and everyone involved in this tragedy. Our hearts go out to them, and we are going to do everything we can to work as hard as we can throughout the evening to provide more information and get answers for everyone.
With that, as I stated, it would be irresponsible for me to speculate right now on motive and other things. I will take maybe a handful of questions and then I've got to go back to a briefing.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I have a quick one.
REDFEARN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Was an actual protest going on when this occurred where a group of people gathered and were word said that would indicate this had anything at all to do with that protest?
REDFEARN: So what I will tell you on Pearl Street, it's a walking pedestrian mall downtown here. There was a lot of people out. Very beautiful day. There was a group of pro-Israel people that were there in a peaceful demonstration. I wouldn't even call it a protest. I believe that happens frequently down here. They were there in that area. We are looking and actively interviewing victims and witnesses to determine if that group was targeted or others, and we just don't have those answers yet. Those are things we hope to be able to provide you later this evening.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: FBI is already calling it a targeted terror attack. Would you also refer to it as a terror attack?
REDFEARN: So I've been in contact with our local FBI multiple times. We are in contact with them here. We are not calling it a terror attack at this point. Again, it's way too early to speculate motive. You know, I know there's a lot out there on social media, but I ask people just to give us a little bit of patience while we work through a really complex scene. A lot of witnesses were here. We've taken them to another location to debrief them and interview them.
As we do that, I think the picture will become more clear. But it would be it would be irresponsible for me to speculate on motive this early on. We're only a couple hours into this thing.
(CROSSTALK)
REDFEARN: I'll go right here.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: About the suspect, can you confirm the description about him? Because we know any picture running in social media.
REDFEARN: I haven't seen it, and obviously I wasn't here when he was arrested. All I know is it's an adult male. We're working to identify that person. We're working to figure out where they're from, and we're in contact with our federal partners as well as we figure that out.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Was something thrown at the group?
REDFEARN: That is being investigated as well. So what we -- our initial call, as I mentioned, was a report that someone was setting people on fire. That is fairly consistent with the injuries that we found on scene, but we're not 100 percent certain how that happened. And that's what we're doing to interview. There's a lot of witnesses that we're interviewing, I suspect, within this evening, I suspect we'll have a better idea of exactly how those injuries occurred.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you guys going to have additional security for Jewish and Israeli people helping the hostages in the circle right now? Because this is a weekly occurrence. Are you guys going to announce some additional security measures to protect Jews in Boulder?
REDFEARN: So what I will say is, again, I cannot confirm right now that this was targeted at a specific group of people. We understand that there's a lot of tensions right now and a lot of issues in the United States and everywhere. Once we have a clear motive, we will react accordingly. And 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 no matter, you know. what they're here for.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many people were injured?
REDFEARN: I don't have an exact number. What I will say is multiple. I can confirm that Boulder Community Hospital received multiple patients, and some of those patients were transferred to other hospitals.
[18:10:03]
Right now we have detectives working to find out specifically the number. Again, hopefully later this evening we'll have an exact number. Right now I'll just say multiple. I'll tale like one more question.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Any life-threatening injuries?
REDFEARN: I believe so. What I'm being told is there are a range of injuries, from very serious to more minor. And again, I just am -- my heart goes out to those victims. And we're keeping them in our thoughts, prayers and minds as they recover. I got to go back to the command post.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE). And I'll tell you that we're going to have another update later tonight. We will post that out and we will live stream it as well. So look, follow our social media for the next update. We will have another update for you this evening. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will put that out if we do. Right now we just have these. So thank you.
DEAN: OK. We are listening to an update from Boulder, Colorado, where it sounds like the local authorities still have a lot of questions. So just to bring everybody up to speed here. The FBI, the federal investigators have said they are investigating an act of terror there in Boulder. Now, we just heard from local Boulder authorities who were there on scene, they confirmed that there are multiple victims who have been taken to the hospital that have suffered burns that would be consistent, they said, with some sort of object being lit on fire or being set on fire.
But again, the local authorities there so far saying they cannot determine if this group was targeted. There was a group of members of the Jewish community who were gathered together to remember the hostages and we are told that it's unclear at this time from local authorities if that group was targeted or not. That is what they are trying to figure out at this moment and discern.
We also know that they said there was a suspect on scene. That person has been taken into custody. They would not give any additional details, except that that person was an adult male. They also said that the scene, while contained, is not, in their estimation, in their assessment, safe yet. There is a vehicle of interest that they're concerned about. That's why they're asking people to stay away from that area.
I want to bring in Juliette Kayyem and Andrew McCabe, who are joining us now. I believe they are both with us.
Andrew, let's go first to you. What -- I'm kind of is standing out to me just in terms of a law enforcement perspective right now is that the local authorities are saying one thing, and the FBI is saying something slightly different.
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. That's never a great start. I think that the press conference that we saw, one thing was abundantly clear is they, the local authorities, and I'm not sure we got the name of that person who was speaking. He seems to be a chief or somebody in charge there. DEAN: Yes. Same. Yes.
MCCABE: Yes. He is really being very, very careful. And I think that's the right approach at this point. They don't have a clear idea that they're willing to communicate to the rest of the world yet of even exactly what happened, who was there, how they were attacked with fire, and what the purpose or the motive of that attack might have been. So he was very, very clear to say that they're not drawing any conclusions about terrorism or anything else at this point.
They're trying to figure out who they have in custody and what that person might have done and who he was trying to hurt with that action. So it's hard to imagine that the FBI has more or better information at this point to kind of rush out with the conclusion within like 10 minutes after we all started hearing about this, that it's a targeted act of terror. It may very well be, but most of the time you try to be very careful about attaching that label to an attack until you have solid evidence that indicates a motive that would qualify as terrorism, like an act intended to intimidate a population or to change the impact, change the direction of government, that sort of thing.
Those are all parts of the terrorism statute. So I think we go with what we're hearing from the folks who are closest to the event at this point. And they do have a lot of work to do, but they seem to be on top of it. And we'll hear from them again tonight, apparently.
DEAN: Yes. I mean, Juliette, that was the other thing is we got really from those local authorities broad strokes on this really scary, and as he said, not OK, not appropriate. This is devastating to any community. This is not what we what anybody wants in the United States of America or anywhere. But, again, just broad strokes of what they know, which doesn't seem like, to Andy's point there, like they're willing to say that they're confident in knowing a lot right now.
KAYYEM: Right. That was -- I'm going to be quite direct here. The FBI director and deputy director got way ahead of where the local police were. The language that the FBI used in their tweets included words like violence, targeted terrorism and violent.
[18:15:13]
They got ahead of where the local police knew where the investigation was. I know, I want to just make it clear here. This could have been an antisemitic attack which is terrifying, in particular for people in the community. We don't know that because the Boulder Police officer, at least according to the Boulder Police officer, they're not sure if the people injured were people at the Jewish rally, the Jewish gathering.
Now, maybe others in organizations know that. We know ADL and other organizations have been out on this. Maybe they have more evidence. But one of the reasons why, you know, Andrew and I are careful in situations like this is because lots of people are saying lots of things. But when the Boulder Police chief comes out and says, we don't have two plus two equaling four yet. In other words if this is obviously an antisemitic attack and the victims were obviously part of that group, therefore we're not calling it terrorism.
It adds a lot of -- it's not good for the community. It's not good for the potentially targeted community. It makes law enforcement look disorganized, and it makes the FBI look so juvenile, like, why are you getting ahead of the police chief who says I don't know what this is? It sounds maybe it is what we all think it is, but maybe it's not. And he has no incentive to get it wrong. So we're going to take a step back not be responsive to tweets by two heads of the FBI who don't have a long history in local law enforcement.
And we will wait, and hope it isn't what we all worry it is. And if it is, then there'll be an investigation. But that was -- that's like nothing I'd ever seen before. You normally, actually Andrew knows this. You normally get the local people getting way ahead on motive and the FBI saying we don't have it yet. You now have the opposite here. And until we know that the victims were members of that -- of the Jewish event, we don't have the nexus.
And I will believe the Denver police chief that they do not have that nexus now. And if they do, I will be the first one out here saying that that is a hate crime. But until we do, we all need to not follow the FBI's tweets.
DEAN: OK. We've got still a lot of questions, a lot of information still coming in. I'm going to ask both of you to please stay with us. I do want to take a quick break. We will be right back with more on this breaking news on this attack in Boulder, Colorado.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:22:31]
DEAN: And we're going back now to breaking news out of Boulder, Colorado, where the FBI is part of an investigation in what it calls an act of terror there in Boulder with multiple injuries reported. We just heard from local law enforcement, though, the Boulder police chief saying that at this point, they're still trying to determine if it was indeed a terror attack, if indeed a group from the Jewish community was targeted in all of this. We do know that a suspect has been taken into custody.
CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones is joining us with more.
And Julia, we just heard from local authorities. They have less information, more questions than answers at this moment. What more can you tell us?
JONES: Well, they are being very careful there. They're pointing out that this is downtown Boulder. It is a busy area. And they can't yet know who this attacker was targeted. They did take him into custody also with some minor injuries. And they're not identifying this man yet, Jessica.
We also heard from Governor Jared Polis, who said that he is closely monitoring this situation. He said, my thoughts go out to the people who have been injured and impacted by this heinous act of terror, again calling it an act of terror, saying hate filled acts of any kind are unacceptable. While details emerge, the state works with local and federal law enforcement to support this investigation. More information will be provided as it becomes available.
Again, what we heard from the Boulder PD as well, that they will continue to conduct this investigation to figure out who was there at the time, who was targeted by this attacker. They did say they took multiple victims in for treatment with injuries that ranged from minor to quite serious. Multiple victims they said. They did not give a number of how many.
Now, the call that they received initially, Jessica, was for a man with a weapon and people being set on fire. Now that those injuries are consistent with burns, with an object being thrown at them. But we don't have more details of what exactly that was. In terms of what was happening at the time, we did hear from the Anti-Defamation League. They posted on X saying that they were aware of reports of an attack at today's Boulder Run for Their Lives Event, an event that was a weekly meeting of the Jewish community members of Boulder, Colorado, to run and walk in support of hostages kidnaped on October 7th.
But again, this to give some context of what was happening on the scene at the time that is going with the comments from, you know, the heads of the FBI calling this an act of terror as well. But we still don't know who was targeted in these targeted and these authorities on the ground being very careful as they work to get more details.
DEAN: All right, Julia, thank you very much.
I do want to bring back in Andrew McCabe and Juliette Kayyem.
Juliette, I'll go back and start with you. Again. just kind of underscoring what Julia was getting at there, which is we hear from the feds and the FBI calling this an act of terror. We hear from the governor of Colorado calling this an act of terror and a hate -- and saying that hate filled acts are unacceptable, categorizing it as a hate filled act that was essentially targeted. But it was local authorities that we just heard from who said they're still working to determine exactly what happened.
If this group that the ADL was talking about, this group at the Boulder Run for Their Lives event that is walking and running in support of the hostages who were kidnaped on October 7th, if they were indeed targeted. It's just, again, one of those situations, Juliette, where we're hearing from local officials, they're saying one thing. We're hearing from federal officials, they're saying something a little bit different at this moment in time.
It may indeed all be exactly the same by the time this is all over. But we're just at that these early stages.
KAYYEM: Right. I think and part of it was because the FBI came out so quickly with their tweets, the FBI director and the FBI deputy director, using words like violence, targeted terrorism, injuries, suggesting that they knew the sort of nature of this. Look, there's these things, there's these entities called Joint Terrorism Task Forces. There's one in Boulder. It involves local, state and federal entities. Normally and probably even now, they are working together to determine the motive.
It may be very clear to people what the motive is because at least I just have to acknowledge it. There are things online about the assailant and what he has said regarding the Jewish organization and them being together. Those aren't verified and that's why the Boulder police are saying, can we not jump the gun? And that's why I have to acknowledge it is that one of the reasons why we don't jump the gun is because Boulder has to -- Boulder Police have to make a case.
And if you go out believing it's one thing, you are going to miss lots of other things. And so the Boulder police chief was clear. We don't know if the victims were specifically attacked for their, you know, for who they were. And we don't know exactly who the perpetrator is. So this is a really not great for the FBI to get so far ahead that everyone is sort of now having to sort of unwind and then maybe rewind or state the same thing consistently in the future if it does turn out being terrorism.
But I want to just say two quick things on this. It's really a bad look overall. And I don't mean that politically. I just mean like people need law enforcement to work in a unified fashion to determine what happened. In particular, if this is a hate crime or terrorism directed towards the Jewish community, that that community in particular needs law enforcement to not be in all different places and look confused.
The second is I just, you know, putting people on fire, trying to ignite people is a very rare thing especially in the United States. And I am particularly interested in who this person is. His ability to do this. We see cases in which people put themselves on fire. And so I am very curious about who he is, his training, his motivation, his mental state. That's a very different kind of attack.
DEAN: It is so horrific. And it is so scary.
KAYYEM: Right.
DEAN: You know, that is -- that we do know. That is, to your point, an absolutely horrific crime.
Andrew, I do want to talk for a second about the suspect, what Juliette was just saying. We know that he is in custody. It is an adult male. That's about all we know, at least from authorities at this point. What I thought was interesting, though, is that they said that while the scene was contained, they couldn't categorize it as safe yet, that they're concerned about a vehicle of interest, that clearly they wanted to go make sure it sounded like if you're kind of reading between the lines, make sure there's nothing that could harm other people, that there's not anything else in that vehicle.
Walk us through what they're doing right now to make sure no one else is injured? At this point, we have multiple people with injuries that could be life threatening. MCCABE: Sure. So imagine the scene, right? It's Boulder, Colorado.
It's a beautiful spring day. We know that. The police officer told us that.
[18:30:03]
It's a pedestrian walkway, so these are closed streets, closed to traffic, on the main street there, Pearl Street. And they are filled presumably with people who are out walking. They might be there to engage in this run-walk for the hostages in Israel or they might just be there shopping or looking around, visiting the city for the weekend. So you have probably a large number of people who are all kind of milling around in the same space.
They're not wearing jerseys or uniforms here. You don't know who is where, for what purpose. And it's in that very crowded, kind of chaotic, disorganized area that you have one person supposedly who strikes out and attacks others. People flee, they drop the things that they happen to be holding in their hands, sometimes bags, backpacks, bags from the store. They leave their vehicles.
So if you have a situation where somebody is thought to have used an incendiary device or a flammable device, you always worry about secondary explosions, secondary devices that may have been set on the ground or in a vehicle or in a trash can, poised to hit when the first responders arrive. So authorities have to be very careful about clearing that area, making sure there aren't any packages that are suspicious or vehicles that are suspicious.
In this case, we know they have one vehicle that they're concerned about. This may be a vehicle that they've already associated with the person they have in custody, either through ownership records, if they know his identity, or maybe just witness testimony. Somebody may have said, hey, I saw that guy get out of that truck over there. So they are going to cordon off that area and do whatever is necessary to make sure that that vehicle is rendered safe, that there's nothing in it that could explode or catch fire, intentionally or unintentionally.
Somebody who's driving around with incendiary devices may have may have materials for constructing additional ones that are in the car. So you have to really think through every possible iteration in which people can get hurt. Now that you have control of the scene, there is no reason to rush that process, right? They'll keep the vehicles that are there from bystanders and innocent people until they're sure that the area is safe and none of those vehicles pose a threat, and then people can eventually come back and get that stuff.
But this is a little bit like what we saw years ago in the Boston bombing. So many thousands of people right there on Boylston Street, they all ran, half of them left backpacks. Every one of those hundreds of backpacks had to be cleared by a bomb team before we could then process the scene for evidence. So it's -- it can be a very laborious process. This is the sort of thing that the FBI really can help out a local police department with, providing manpower, technology and resources to do that sort of work. That's what the FBI does. We don't step in and take over and draw
conclusions five minutes after the attack about what happened. We reach out to the local authorities, we provide people, and we offer assistance in any way that we can. The bureau is there to help the first responders.
DEAN: Thank you so much to both of you. One thing we know for sure, you know, certainly thinking about these victims and their families, a truly horrific thing that has happened to them as we await more on their conditions. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to have much more on this breaking news straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:38:01]
DEAN: We are continuing to follow breaking news out of Boulder, Colorado, where we are told the FBI is investigating what it calls an act of terror there in Boulder, Colorado. I do want to read some new reporting that we have from our colleague John Miller, who reports that the suspect who has been detained in this, that all we know is it is an adult male. That's what we've heard from local law enforcement there. That the man threw bottles apparently containing flammable liquid. The exact number was unclear. They hit the ground and they exploded into flames.
This is what multiple law enforcement officials briefed on this investigation have told CNN. We know at least two people have been taken to the hospital, according to those officials. We also heard from local law enforcement there in Boulder, Colorado, who categorized it as multiple victims who had burns that were very consistent with exactly what was described there, with some sort of object being thrown, with being set on fire. Those victims' injuries ranged from minor injuries to life threatening injuries.
Now, I believe we have John Miller with us right now.
John, are you there?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Jessica, I'm right here.
DEAN: OK, great. Fill us in, John. I was just clueing everyone in on your reporting that you've just gotten from law enforcement officials. What more are you learning about this right now?
MILLER: Well, right now, what we have is this group, Run for Their Lives, which does this weekly event where they walk through or run through Boulder to raise awareness for the hostages, the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas, were in the midst of their event. As they got to Pearl Street, by 13th Street, by the old courthouse in that downtown area, an individual who was there before they arrived throws these bottles.
It's two or three bottles apparently filled with a flammable liquid. This is very consistent with what we would call Molotov cocktails, where you put gasoline in, you light a fuse, usually a rag. You throw the bottle, it bursts into flames.
[18:40:06]
This injured somewhere between three and five people. They're still sorting that out. Two were taken to a local hospital. They're being treated. And at this point, you've got one subject who is in custody. A possible suspect. You have a cordon that has been expanded to about four blocks where they have evacuated that area of civilians. They have located a car that they believe is connected to this suspect, the person they have in custody. And what they're doing now is going through that process where whoever dropped a bag or a backpack as they ran or fled, each one of those is going to be treated on some level as a suspicious package.
So their bomb squad, their SWAT team are clearing that area of those packages. Then the bomb squad is going to clear that car to make sure it doesn't contain explosives. It's not booby trapped and so on. And then once they have that, they'll be processing the actual crime scene for that evidence. In the meantime, they're running the background of this individual they have. We have a name.
We're looking into that background as well to determine if he is known to police. If he has been on the radar for something else, if he has a criminal record. And while all of that is going on, we have to stand back and remember the environment that we've been working in. We had the attack on the Pennsylvania governor's house. You recall that. It was over the Passover Seder. He was upstairs with his family.
An individual claiming that he was doing this on behalf of, quote, "his people" in the Middle East, used Molotov cocktails, in that case, caused a very serious fire. No serious injuries from that incident. He's in custody. Turns out that he is somebody who has a background of mental health issues. No background with terrorism or that particular cause prior to that.
Obviously a couple of weeks ago, we had the incident at the Jewish Museum in Washington, where we see another attack, this individual with a firearm who made it clear that he was doing that because of the connection of that target and his position on the situation with Hamas and in Palestine.
So multiple terrorist organizations have put out these calls for people to act individually and to do what they can. And what we are seeing is this spate of attacks not just in the United States, but around the world that are basically low cost in terms of what they use, low tech in terms of how it's formulated, but potentially high impact.
Now, the FBI director has tweeted that the FBI is responding to what he termed as a terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, and that they are fully investigating that. Police locally are being far more cautious. They're delving into the background of this individual, trying to determine if that was the motive or if something else or something in that person's background.
But that's where we are right now, Jessica, and a lot of work to do and a lot of information to gather. And obviously all of this is preliminary as well because as we learn from these things, sometimes these accounts will shift and change over time. But that is the latest information we have from law enforcement officials at the scene and sources who are tracking it.
DEAN: Right. And of course, you know, you just laid out exactly what we do know at this moment. There are a lot of questions I think really zeroing in on the, you know, as the feds and the FBI has labeled this an act of terror, local law enforcement, as you said, being more cautious before they're prepared to say that. But the bottom line, as you say, as you mentioned, and this is an important piece of this is the environment in which this is playing out, in which so many Jewish people in America are really scared right now. And this is another example of why that is.
MILLER: That is the case. And, you know, a lot of this depends on what they are able to learn in the next few hours and days about the individual they have in custody. First of all, do they have the person in custody who threw these incendiary devices, apparently Molotov cocktails? And there are steps there, which is you identify that individual, you process that car, you are looking in the car for, is there a note, is there a communique?
You get to their social media. You get through that social media to determine, did they leave some claim of responsibility. As we saw in the Jewish Museum case, the individual apparently had somebody or had a way to time the posting of what we loosely called a manifesto that laid out his motive and reasons.
[18:45:06]
And then beyond that, they'll be looking for that search warrant to get into the residence. What's in the house? Who does he live with? Who are his associates to get into his social media not for just what he posted, but also what he's been looking at if there's propaganda there, if there is evidence of planning everything down to some of the things you saw during the investigations into -- remember when they were attacking Tesla dealerships with Molotov cocktails.
They go so deep into the evidence collection that they're working on the fingerprints and DNA from the bottles. They're looking to see from a video canvass, can they track the person back to a gas station where they purchased the accelerant? Can they track them back to a convenience store where they bought the bottles? There's a million steps to be taken that will unfold over the next 48 to 72 hours. And they are just starting now.
But I think you've touched on the question that everybody is asking, which is, what is the motive here? Is it what it appears it might be? And what does that say to this community and its law enforcement people as they put this together?
DEAN: Yes, that is the big question. I do want to touch on one more logistical thing with you here, which is when we heard from local law enforcement, they just I was talking to Andrew McCabe about this, but they described the scene there as contained, but they didn't -- they said in their words, it's not safe yet, that they were worried or focusing in, rather, on this vehicle that they're interested in.
Again, we don't know. You would assume that's probably this person's that they have in custody's vehicle. But we don't know that. But I would assume that's very important for them to go through that. And it could potentially be dangerous. They don't know what's in that car.
MILLER: Well, that's right. And that has become a standard, which is if you have an individual in custody and you can put a name to that individual, you sweep outward from that scene and you try to connect that person to a car. You start running those license plates and say, which one of these vehicles comes back to that individual? And if you can isolate that vehicle, then you want to know what's inside it.
Obviously, there's potential evidence of the crime, but when you're dealing with someone who has used an explosive device or in this case, an incendiary device, you know that that car could either contain more of the same or something different that is set to go off on a timer or something that is being stored there. So this is why they slow the thing down. They just slow it down, which is the bomb squad likes to work remotely rather than walk up to it.
You might want to use a canine rather than peer inside it. You might want to use a robot. Because they're doing an evacuation, they may move a little more quickly than that if there are people around, but now that they've cleared the area, they can really take their time on that. And that is, you know, you start remote, you stay remote, you try to work at a distance until you feel safe, until you feel it's safe enough to move in closer.
So processing that car could be one of the things that, A, makes that area, not one that they can guarantee being safe, but also may take a while before they're able to release part of this crime scene, which the crime scene itself, from the attack of what are apparently Molotov cocktails, will be relatively small, but the cordon, they're going to need to process that car until they know whether it presents a hazard is going to be bigger.
DEAN: All right, John Miller, thank you. So good to have you here with us. We'll check back in with you as we get more details on all of this. Thank you so much.
We're going to take a quick break and we'll be back with more breaking news on the other side.
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[18:53:35]
DEAN: And we are continuing to follow breaking news out of Boulder, Colorado, this afternoon where multiple people, according to authorities, have been set on fire and an attack on a march there. We also are hearing from officials that the suspect threw bottles of flammable liquid, essentially Molotov cocktails, that exploded. We know that multiple people have been taken to the hospital, some with life threatening injuries. Again, that is according to local law enforcement. The FBI says that it is investigating this as an act of terror. Local
law enforcement has been more cautious in how they're categorizing this, emphasizing they are still gathering information right now.
I do want to play a clip that we are getting in from a member of the group that was marching there in Boulder, Colorado. March, I'm sorry, Run for Their Lives, which was bringing an awareness to the hostages that were kidnaped on October 7th. This is what, again, a member of the group who was not there, but this is what she had to say this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope that Jews will not be scared to come out and protest for our hostages. Now I think that now more than ever we need to be strong in our Judaism and our faith and know that hashem has Israel in his heart, and that it is essential for us as not only Jews, but as humans, to help the vulnerable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: I want to bring in CNN media analyst Brian Stelter, who is joining us now with more.
[18:55:03]
Brian, again, we're getting more and more details about all of this, and we are watching and listening to what officials are saying. This is also, of course, as it always does, playing out on social media as people gather information from people who are on the ground and disseminate that information.
What are you learning and what are you seeing?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. And geo-located eyewitness videos from the crime scene show the aftermath before police and paramedics arrived. You can see patches of grass still burning on the ground along Pearl and 13th Street. You see bystanders using T-shirts and cloths to try to assist the victims and put out the flames. Other people rushed over with bottles of water to try to put out the flames.
There are several apparent burn scars on the ground and a discarded Israeli flag also on the ground, which testifies to what was going on at the time. As you just mentioned, this regular demonstration that takes place every Sunday at this location in Boulder. This -- we have a statement, actually, a joint statement from Boulder's Jewish community, from local leaders. And we can just obtain this from a resident and we can put part of it on screen.
It says, we are saddened and heartbroken to learn that an incendiary device was thrown at walkers at the Run for Their Lives Walk on Pearl Street, as they were raising awareness for the hostages still held in Gaza. The statement goes on to say, we don't have the details yet of what is unfolding, and we promise to keep our community informed. Our hearts go out to those who witnessed this horrible attack and prayers for a speedy recovery to those who were injured.
This goes on to say that the FBI and local law enforcement officials are involved, and it's signed, "Strength to you all." It's signed by a number of rabbis and other local leaders in the community.
But as I said, Jessica, this was a scheduled event taking place every Sunday. So if an extremist wanted to show up and commit an act of violence, they knew when and where to go. And in some of these geolocated videos, we do see local residents confronting a man in the immediate aftermath, confronting a man, the apparent suspect. Again, we don't know those details yet, but you can see there was a standoff of sorts even before police arrived.
And we've heard from police who have said this suspect was taken into custody without incident. So it is notable that even as the flames were still burning, there were people around who spotted someone they believed was the assailant. And that may have helped police ultimately catch whoever did this.
DEAN: Yes, I mean, this is what we have heard again in local law enforcement describing, and we're getting some video now that people can see there on their screen. But -- and local law enforcement in describing this saying that, look, this is a busy part of town. This is where kind of everyone converges together.
STELTER: Right.
DEAN: And that it is, it was, you know, very chaotic in trying to discern exactly what had happened there. But we also did learn that because there were so many people around, to your point, Brian, we get videos like this and we get more and more information from people who were around when that did happen.
Now, officials have said that this suspect or this person that they have detained in this case is -- all they'll say is it's an adult male. But that's about all that we know right now. But you can imagine, as we've been talking to law enforcement, that they're going to be going through this person's social media, going through what they have on their computer and putting, trying to put all these pieces together.
STELTER: And this heightens the sense of fear that many Jewish Americans feel at this time. When I saw that Israeli flag discarded on the ground, I was thinking about how these demonstrators were there with a purpose, with a confidence, with a mission, trying to raise awareness. And then, in the blink of an eye, this turned to tragedy and all peoples, you know, people's belongings and all that were discarded in that moment.
It was also striking to me, reading one eyewitness account, going over to a fountain that was by the old courthouse John Miller was talking about. There's a fountain there. People rushed over to the fountain, started to fill up water bottles, tried to fill up bottles to bring water over to some of the victims. And we don't know the exact number yet, Jessica.
DEAN: That's right. All right, Brian, thank you so much. We really appreciate all of that.
And look, this is the United States of America where everyone is guaranteed safety no matter your color, race, your creed. And so of course just a sad event as we learn more details and work to learn exactly what unfolded there in Boulder. We are getting more and more details.
Please stay with us. We will have more on the other side of this break.
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