Man arrested, charged with hate crimes for spraying Spanish-speakers with gasoline in Aurora

An arrest was made in connection with an attack from last month that could have been deadly.

Riny Kosam, 28, was arrested by Aurora police and now faces several charges related to a July 23 attack at the Rocket Gas Station at Mississippi Avenue and Havana Street.

Just before 11 p.m. that night, Kosam approached customers that were speaking Spanish and told them they "don't belong here," sprayed them with gasoline and apparently searched for a lighter, police said. When he couldn't find a lighter, he threw a rock through their car's rear window and stole their keys.

Kosam was arrested Wednesday by the Aurora Police's Direct Action Response Team, a unit the department says is primarily tasked with investigating violent crimes. He's been charged with robbery, assault in the third degree, second-degree criminal mischief, harassment and several bias-motivated crimes.

A witness told police that Kosam was already in an "agitated" and "aggressive" mood when he came in. The witness said he approached the victims, said, "you're not welcome here," and tried to provoke a fight.

A store employee told the three men to go outside, where Kosam pulled the gas nozzle out of their victims' car and sprayed one of them with gasoline, and then punched him in the back of the head.

When he tried to find a lighter and couldn't, he stole the victims' car keys and left.

One of the victims told police he feared for his life.

About two weeks after the attack, an anonymous tipster called police in response to a flyer seeking identification or information about the suspect, according to the arrest report.

Once police looked into the person mentioned by the tipster, they learned that they arrested the same person on unrelated charges the day after the gas station attack.