The incident , which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is calling a ‘targeted terror attack’, has resulted in injuries to six people while the suspect himself has been taken into custody. But what really happened? Who’s behind the tragedy? What were his motives? How have authorities reacted so far? We try to piece together what exactly happened and get you all the answers from this heinous incident.

What exactly happened?

Around 1.26 pm on Sunday, a volunteer group known as Run For Their Lives had gathered in the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder to raise visibility for hostages who remain in Gaza as the war between Israel and Hamas continues. The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish activist group, said on X that this group of people meet on a weekly basis in support of the hostages seized during the October 7 attack by Hamas.

“This attack happened at a regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event,” FBI agent Mark Michalek confirmed to reporters.

According to authorities, they rushed to the scene after receiving a number of emergency calls from the city’s downtown area. “The initial callers indicated that there was a man with a weapon and that people were being set on fire,” Boulder chief of police Stephen Redfern later told a press conference.

“When we arrived, we encountered multiple victims that were injured, with, injuries consistent with burns and other injuries,” he added.

Eyewitnesses recounting the horror that unfolded said that a shirtless man approached the group and used a “makeshift flamethrower” and threw Molotov cocktails. According to a CBS News report, the witnesses told investigators the suspect also allegedly yelled “End Zionist!” during the attack.

The suspect was also heard yelling, “Free Palestine.”

One witness, identified as Brooke Coffman, told CNN’s affiliate KUSA, that she saw a “big fire going up”. She said that she was on the phone with her mother when she “saw some flags moving around,” “people wrestling,” and “like someone was getting beat up or something.”

When she saw the flames, Coffman said she hung up on her mother, ran over to the area and called 911. “There was a kid yelling, ‘Call 911,’” she recalled. “People on the street were just yelling, ‘Call 911.’ People were running.”

Coffman added that she jumped over a small fence to get to two women who were “rolling around a bit” on the grass and in their underwear from stripping their pants. “They have really bad burns all up on their legs,” she said. One of the victims was screaming and “was wrapped in a flag.”

Videos have started circulating on social media depicting the horror — it shows a shirtless man holding clear bottles in his hands, pacing as the grass in front of him burns. He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people as they tend to a person lying on the ground.

Who are the victims of the attack?

Six people have been injured in the incident in Boulder with the police saying that they are aged between 67-88. According to Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn, one was seriously injured and said to be in a critical condition.

Rabbi Israel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado Boulder, told CBS Colorado that one of the injured is an 88-year-old Holocaust refugee who fled Europe, calling her a “very loving person”. Another victim is a professor at CU, Wilhelm said.

Who’s the suspect in the Colorado attack?

The suspect in the attack has been taken into custody with authorities identifying him as Mohamed Sabry Soliman. He was arrested from the scene of the crime and taken to a local hospital with minor injuries. While no charges have been officially announced, officials say they intend to hold him “fully accountable.”

FBI Denver Special Agent-in-charge Mark Michalek later told the media that they don’t believe that 45-year-old Soliman is part of a larger group or network and had acted alone in this incident.

A CNN report citing sources said that in 2005, Soliman was denied a visa to enter the United States. It’s unclear when or how the suspect entered the US.

Inforcement officials have now told NBC News that Soliman is an Egyptian national with no prior significant contact with law enforcement. Even his social media accounts show no indication to any specific ideology.

Later, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the suspect in the attack had “illegally overstayed” a tourist visa. “He was granted a tourist visa by the Biden administration and then he illegally overstayed that visa,” Miller wrote in a post on X. “In response, the Biden Administration gave him a work permit.”

What are authorities saying about the attack?

The FBI, who arrived at the scene of the incident and now cordoned it off, is treating it as a terror attack. FBI chief Kash Patel has called it a targeted terror attack and added that US President Donald Trump has been briefed about it.

Meanwhile, Colorado Governor Jared Polis condemned the attack in Boulder, calling it “hateful act” and saying there’s “no place for this.”

Speaking to MSNBC, Polis added that “everybody deserves to be safe” and called attacks on people for their opinions, beliefs or religion “completely unacceptable.” He said his thoughts were with the victims and their families, as well as the Jewish community more broadly.

“Regardless of anybody’s views on global politics or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that this kind of act of terrorism, act of violence, is completely unacceptable. We condemn it. I know the suspect has been arrested. I hope he’s prosecuted the full extent of the law,” Polis said.

He added that the attack was a strike on free speech and stressed the importance of respectful discourse over physical violence.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X, “We’re united in prayer for the victims. Terror has no place in our great country.”

Israeli officials also expressed horror and shock at the incident. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN said on X that the Boulder attack was terrorism. In a post on X, the ambassador says, “Jewish protesters were brutally attacked”.

“Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border – it is already burning the streets of America,” he added.

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar also condemned the attack. On X, he wrote, “Shocked by the terrible antisemitic terror attack targeting Jews in Boulder, Colorado. This is pure antisemitism, fuelled by the blood libels spread in the media. I spoke with our Ambassador in the US and our Consul General in LA. I pray for those who were wounded in the attack.”