Boulder Police accused a man of attacking three people with a knife, injuring one, while they walked to work Thursday morning on the Pearl Street Mall. Within two minutes of the call, officers had their suspect in custody.
Marcus Ariel Valles, 35, is accused of cutting a 44-year-old woman’s hand and bruising her in the attack around 7:54 a.m. in the 1300 block of Pearl Street, according to a . He then cornered a 50-year-old man in the same block and tried to stab him, police said.
Valles’ knife didn’t connect with the man, and the man threw his coffee at Valles before running away, according to the release.
The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment, according to spokesperson Dionne Waugh.
Police believe there is a third victim of the knife attack, but could not share more details while the investigation is ongoing, Waugh said.
At 7:56 a.m. — two minutes after first being called — police arrested Valles at gunpoint. Boulder Police officers had located the suspect within 10 seconds of the call by using the city’s Public Safety Information Center, which centralizes public and private surveillance footage, the news release said.
Valles, who’s from Lakewood, told detectives in an interview after his arrest that he came to Boulder to hurt people, according to the news release. Boulder detectives think he targeted strangers who were walking alone and that he was acting alone.
“This could have been much worse,” Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said in the news release. “We will not tolerate anyone coming to our community to do harm.”
Valles faces three counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault and two counts of felony menacing, according to the release. Valles did not appear in Boulder County Jail records as of 1 p.m.
Police had asked people to avoid the 1300 block of Pearl Street while it investigated the scene, according to an alert posted on X at 8:55 a.m. Police had cleared the scene as of 10:04 a.m, according to Waugh.
The Boulder County Historic Downtown Courthouse is in that block of Pearl Street.
Police are asking for help to identify a witness who was seen on camera footage at the scene. They ask that anyone with information about Valles or the attack call them at 303-441-1974 regarding case #26-05470.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
