By COLLEEN SLEVIN and JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A man accused of yelling “Free Palestine” and throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza was charged Thursday with attempted murder and explosives crimes in a Colorado court.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was advised of the charges during a court hearing where he appeared from jail in Boulder. He has been held there since his arrest following Sunday’s attack. Investigators say Soliman, who posed as a gardener, had planned it for a year.
Authorities have said 15 people and a dog were victims of the attack.
Lesli Colin Johnsen, right, hugs Beth Blacker before a community vigil at the Boulder Jewish Community Center, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post via AP, Pool)
He has also been charged with a hate crime in federal court and is jailed on a $10 million cash bond.
Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants the weekly demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.
Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88, and a dog. Details about how the victims were impacted would be explained in criminal charges set to be filed Thursday, said Boulder County District Attorney’s office spokesperson Shannon Carbone.
Defendant’s family investigated
U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher on Wednesday granted a request to block the deportation of Soliman’s wife and five children, who like Soliman are Egyptian. U.S. immigration officials took them into custody Tuesday, but they have not been charged in the attack.
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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal.
“It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,” attorneys for the family wrote in a lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the plaintiff’s claims “absurd” and “an attempt to delay justice.” She said the entire family was living in the U.S. illegally.
Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, a 17-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, said Eric Lee, one of the attorney’s representing the family.
Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew he was planning an attack, according to court documents. El Gamal said she was “shocked” to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to her lawsuit.
The family’s immigration status
Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.
He arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired.
Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports.
Soliman’s wife is an Egyptian national, according to her lawsuit. She is a network engineer and has a pending EB-2 visa, which is available to professionals with advanced degrees, the suit said. She and her children all are listed as dependents on Soliman’s asylum application.
A vigil for the victims
Hundreds of people squeezed into the Jewish Community Center in Boulder for a vigil Wednesday evening that featured prayer, singing and emotional testimony from a victim and witnesses of the firebombing attack in the city’s downtown.
Rachelle Halpern, who has participated in such demonstrations since 2023, said she remembers thinking it was strange to see a man with a canister looking like he was going to spray pesticide on the grass. Then she heard a crash and screams and saw flames around her feet.
Rachelle Halpern, a witness to last Sunday’s attack in Boulder, speaks during a vigil at the Boulder Jewish Community Center Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post via AP, Pool)
“A woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground with her husband,” she said. “People immediately, three or four men immediately rushed to her to smother the flames.”
Her description prompted murmurs from the audience members. One woman’s head dropped into her hands.
“I heard a loud noise, and the back of my legs burning, and don’t remember those next few moments,” said a victim, who didn’t want to be identified and spoke off camera, over the event’s speakers. “Even as I was watching it unfold before my eyes, even then, it didn’t seem real.”
Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle; Eric Tucker and Rebecca Santana in Washington; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
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