BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) Mass confusion is how the man who recorded a video of the Boulder attack is describing Sunday’s incident at the Pearl Street Mall.
Alex Osante, a tourist, was visiting from San Diego when the situation unfolded.
In the video, you can see the firebombs being thrown and people running around trying to get water and medical aid. Osante said the whole situation lasted about seven minutes before police arrived on scene.
“I came on vacation for one week to Aspen,” he said. “After one week, I wanted to see Vail, Breckenridge, and then come to Boulder for one day.”
On that Sunday afternoon, chaos ensued.
“I definitely didn’t know anything about the walk or what was going on there. I was just having lunch across the street at an Italian restaurant,” Osante said.
In the middle of his lunch, he heard a loud boom, and heard frantic screaming.
“When I turned over to look at what was going on, there were people just running around tripping and they were falling,” he said. “It was hard to understand what was going on. There was a lot of confusion. There were five people that were on fire … who were burning.”
Alex said he witnessed victims burning from head to toe. He, along with bystanders, helped provide water to those in distress.
“People from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities, as soon as this started happening, we all came together as a big group to find out a solution,” said Osante.
Shortly after, he recorded the video so he could dissect what happened later.
“Thankfully, I started recording when I did, so we can capture what was happening there,” Osante said. “Because I’m the only person who has the video from the beginning to the end showing what really happened, I was able to, after the fact, go back to the video and dissect it to see what really happened. So, when I go back and look at it, I see the man came out of the trees in the bushes a second time with the Molotov cocktails in his hand. He threw it at a lady and when he threw it at the lady, he lit himself on fire. When he lit himself on fire, he went up in flames.”
At the time, he didn’t know the suspect was the one responsible for the tragedy.
“It was like, ‘Why is this guy on fire?’ He must not be one of the he must not be the person causing this because he is on fire,” said Osante. “He took off his vest and his shirt and was standing there holding two bottles. We didn’t know what the bottles were, but they kind of looked like the bottles of water I was giving to the victims.”
He says it’s still hard to grasp what unfolded.
“I’ve been to 87 countries on vacation and all around the world, and never have I seen anything this crazy and this wild where people are on fire,” said Osante. “I never expected anything like this to happen and it was a complete shock.”
Osante said it was devastating to learn the cause of the tragedy.
“Let’s make terrorism not great again,” he said. “When I learned what was actually going on with the political agendas, all of the information we didn’t understand at first, it magnified the amplitude and the chaotic experience we all went through. This is going on all over the world. People fighting against each other, happening all around the world, and it needs to stop.”
This Sunday at noon, there will be a gathering for Boulder’s weekly run for their lives walk as well as the annual Boulder Jewish Festival. In light of the tragedy, security is being coordinated with Boulder police and Colorado State Patrol.
