Aaron Brooks was riding his bike Sunday afternoon when he heard screams for help come from around the corner of the Boulder courthouse.

What Brooks encountered next is something that he said will stay with him forever:

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“I hear somebody yelling, ‘Is anybody a doctor, is anybody a doctor?’ And I thought somebody maybe at one of the restaurants was having a heart attack. Then I saw a friend of mine running from the courthouse yelling, ‘Is there a doctor?’ And I get the mental map to realize: did something happen to our group?”

Brooks walks every week with a group called “Run For Their Lives,” who advocate for the release of hostages in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and he witnessed the group being attacked as it was happening.

“I saw smoke on the ground, flames coming from the ground, smoke literally coming from a human being … there was blood. It was horrific.”

The incident occurred just before 1:30 p.m. near 13th and Pearl streets during the Run For Their Lives “peaceful humanitarian walk for hostages.”

The suspect was heard yelling “Free Palestine” while tossing a makeshift flamethrower toward the group, injuring eight people aged between 52 and 87, according to FBI Special Agent In Charge Mark Michalek and the City of Boulder.

Brooks said the Run For Their Lives meetings are “not a protest, it’s not a rally, it’s not even a march. It’s a walk. We walk. It’s peaceful.”

Before he knew it, Brooks said he tried de-escalating the situation before watching authorities arrest suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian citizen, who is being held on $10 million bond and faces numerous federal charges.

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Four men and four women were transported to Denver metro hospitals. Soliman was also taken to a hospital to be medically evaluated before he was booked at the Boulder County Jail on multiple charges, officials said.

One of the victims is a Holocaust survivor and is “going to be OK,” Brooks, a friend of the victim, said, calling her a “personal hero” and “the most wonderful person I’ve met.”

This story is developing and will be updated.