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Suspect arrested in attack on 2 victims who were sprayed with gasoline

Riny Kosam is facing a number of charges stemming from the incident at an Aurora gas station on July 23.

AURORA, Colo. — Aurora Police said Thursday they have arrested a 28-year-old man in connection with a bias-motivated attack in which two people were sprayed with gasoline.

Riny Kosam, 28, was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Kosam confronted two people who were speaking Spanish at a gas station on South Havana Street near East Mississippi Avenue around 11 p.m. Saturday, July 23, police said.

He told the two people they "don't belong here" and followed them to their car, then sprayed gas on the victims and looked for a lighter to set them on fire but couldn't find one, according to police.

> The video above about the attack aired on Aug. 3, when police were still looking for a suspect.

Kosam then threw a rock through the back window of the victims' car and stole their keys, police said.

" 'You're not welcome here. We don't like your kind.' And that was only because he was speaking Spanish," Chris Martinez, a cashier at Rockets Phillips 66 Gas Station where the incident happened, told 9NEWS this month.

"It's not right to just to pour gas, let alone hate on someone because of their skin color, their language they speak, religion or anything like that," Martinez said.

A person who said they were one of the customers involved in the incident, but did not want to be identified, told 9NEWS this month that Kosam also punched the neck of the other victim before throwing the rock.

"I was scared, but I couldn't turn my back on him because he would knock me down," the person said in Spanish. "Now imagine that. He would have finished me. I don't know what was going on with him."

Police said the victims suffered minor injuries in the attack.

Credit: Aurora Police
Riny Kosam

PREVIOUS ARTICLE: Customers sprayed with gasoline in apparent hate crime

Kosam faces nearly a dozen charges related to the incident. Those charges include two felonies:

  • Bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury
  • Robbery

And eight misdemeanors:

  • Two counts harassment - insults/taunts ethnic intimidation
  • Two counts of bias-motivated crime places victims in fear
  • Harassment - strike/shove ethnic intimidation
  • Bias-motivated crime - property damage
  • Third-degree assault
  • Second-degree trespass

Kosam was also charged with criminal mischief and a traffic-related offense.

He was being held in the Arapahoe County Detention Center under a $150,000 cash or surety bond, according to court records. He was next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 29.

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