Arrest made in alleged bias-motivated attack of Spanish-speaking customers at Aurora gas station

AURORA, Colo. — Aurora police have arrested a man on charges related to what’s believed to be a bias-motivated attack on customers speaking Spanish at a gas station in July.

The Aurora Police Department said its DART Team arrested Riny Kosam without incident on Wednesday around 4:30 p.m during a traffic stop in the 1500 block of South Havana Street. Police said a tip from a community member helped them track Kosam down to that location. He's facing 12 charges, including:

• Bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury
• Bias-motivated crime causing property damage
• Bias-motivated crime placing victim in fear (2 counts) 
• Harassment by striking, shoving with ethnic intimidation (3 counts) 
• Robbery
• Third-degree assault 
• Motor vehicle trespass 
• Criminal mischief 
• Driving under restraint related to an alcohol violation

The charges stem from a July 23 attack at the Rocket Gas Station, located at 1100 S. Havana St. Around 11 p.m, a man confronted customers who were speaking Spanish and told them “you're not welcome here,” police initially reported. The man then followed the customers to their car, sprayed them with gasoline, punched one of them in thehead, looked for a lighter to set them on fire, threw a rock through the back window of the victim’s vehicle and stole his keys, according to an affidavit and police.

One of the victims, Rimel, a Colombian man who asked to be identified by only his first name, told Denver7 that he and a friend had stopped at the gas station, and said he witnessed a man yell at his friend and try to push him around when he went inside to pay for gas. Rimel said the man was extremely aggressive and followed his friend outside, at one point grabbing the gas pump and dousing Rimel in gasoline before stealing his keys.

On Aug. 5, a man gave police a tip that the suspect might be a neighbor. Police also discovered that Kosam was the same person seen on body camera video from a July 24 fight after which Kosam was arrested for investigation of assault and display of a deadly weapon, among others.

The victim in that attack, in which Kosam is accused of pulling a knife on a man and telling him to speak English, said Kosam started hitting his car and tried to open the door and pull him out of it.

"There's a lot of Spanish speakers in this country, and he never heard me speaking Spanish. Nothing like that," said Simon Agudelo.

Kosam appeared in court Thursday morning and was given a $150,000 cash or surety bond, which the judge said was due to the severity of the allegations and his previous failure to appear in court for lower charges. Kosam is scheduled to be back in court on Sept. 29.

Kosam is known to police in Colorado, having been arrested several times before, including for DUI and domestic violence.

Agudelo and his family say they are just glad Kosar is off the streets.

"It was something disgusting, you know? I feel disgusted by this fact," he said.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact 303-627-1661 or email StopHate@auroragov.org.

This is a developing story and will be updated.