BOULDER, Colo. — Police are investigating an attack on Boulder City Councilwoman Tara Winer and two others. According to the councilwoman, it began after the suspect reportedly shouted racist and offensive language.
Boulder Police Department said the attack occurred just before 6:30 p.m. on Friday. When the incident unfolded, Winer and other city councilmembers were attending the grand opening of Nana's Dim Sum, a new restaurant on The Hill.
According to Winer, as young children performed a cultural dance, a man began shouting racial slurs and profanity directed at Asians.
"He did go away, but by this time, I was so mad that he was hurting these kids," Winer said. "He was ruining this cultural experience. It was a grand opening, and it just wasn't right on so many levels."
The councilwoman said she stepped outside the restaurant and yelled to the man, who was already halfway down the block, that she was going to take a picture of him. She wanted to report him to the police for hate speech.
In response, the man turned around, sprinted toward her and violently attacked. According to Winer, the attacker punched her, threw her to the ground, then pinned her by sitting on top of her.
"It happened so fast," she said. "I'm face down on the street. He sits down on top of me. Somebody, I don’t even know who, pulls him off."
It was later revealed that Matt Jensen, a man attending the event, intervened and pulled the attacker off Winer. Two security guards from Illegal Pete’s, a restaurant across the street, also rushed over to subdue the attacker.
In the struggle, the attacker allegedly bit Jensen and one of the security guards.
Winer later learned the attacker had a knife on him. According to the arrest affidavit, the suspect pulled the knife out on a somebody walking by the event. This person confronted the suspect about his language before the suspect attacked Winer two minutes later.
"My family [is] really upset because I could have been dead or severely injured. Thank God for the good Samaritans that saved my life," Winer said.
She suffered a severe headache, has bruises on her arms and legs and is wearing a brace for injuries to her ribs.
Despite the ordeal, she expressed no regrets.
"I would have done it again," she said. "To be clear, I shouldn't have done it. But, my personal personality is if somebody is being subjected to hate or prejudice or it involves kids, I will go crazy."
The suspect, identified by police as 26-year-old Chase Raskin, was arrested shortly after the attack on suspicion of felony menacing and two counts of third-degree assault. He has since bonded out of jail.
The motive behind the attack remains under investigation.