By COLLEEN SLEVIN and ERIC TUCKER
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and an incendiary device to attack a group in Boulder, Colorado, that had gathered to bring attention to Israeli hostages in Gaza, has been charged with a federal hate crime, according to court documents filed Monday.
The suspect, Mohammed Sabry Soliman, 45, told police he planned it for a year and specifically targeted what he described as the “Zionist group,” the FBI said. Eight people were injured in the attack, some with burns, as a group was concluding their weekly demonstration to raise visibility for the hostages who remain in Gaza. Witnesses reported the man yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack.
An FBI affidavit says Soliman confessed to the attack after being taken into custody Sunday and told the police he would do it again. The affidavit was released in support of a federal hate crime charged filed by the Justice Department on Monday.
Court records show Soliman was scheduled to appear in state court in Boulder at 1:30 p.m.
The burst of violence at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, a four-block area in downtown Boulder, unfolded against the backdrop of a war between Israel and Hamas that continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. The attack happened on the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is marked with the reading of the Torah and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staffers outside of a Jewish museum in Washington.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Monday saying he, his wife and the entire nation of Israel were praying for the full recovery of the people wounded in the “vicious terror attack” in Colorado.
Attack leads to increased security elsewhere
“Sadly, attacks like this are becoming too common across the country,” said Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver field office, which encompasses Boulder.
In New York, the police department said it upped its presence at religious sites throughout the city for Shavuot.
The eight victims who were wounded range in age from 52 to 88 and the injuries spanned from serious to minor, officials said.
The attack occurred as people with a volunteer group called Run For Their Lives was concluding their weekly demonstration to raise visibility for the hostages who remain in Gaza. Video from the scene shows a witness shouting, “He’s right there. He’s throwing Molotov cocktails,” as a police officer with his gun drawn advances on a bare-chested suspect who is holding containers in each hand.
Alex Osante of San Diego said he was having lunch on a restaurant patio across the pedestrian mall when he heard the crash of a bottle breaking on the ground and a “boom” sound followed by people yelling and screaming.
In video of the scene captured by Osante, people could be seen pouring water on a woman lying on the ground who Osante said had caught on fire during the attack. A man, who later identified himself as an Israeli visiting Boulder who decided to join the group that day, ran up to Osante on the video asking for some water to help.
This image provided by the Boulder Police Dept. shows Mohamed Sabry Soliman. (Boulder Police Dept. via AP)
Suspect reemerged after initial attack before being arrested
After the initial attack, Osante said the suspect went behind some bushes and then reemerged and threw a Molotov cocktail but apparently accidentally caught himself on fire as he threw it. The man then took off his shirt and what appeared to be a bulletproof vest before the police arrived. The man dropped to the ground and was arrested without any apparent resistance in the video that Osante filmed.
Lynn Segal, 72, was among about 20 people who gathered Sunday. They had finished their march in front of the courthouse when a “rope of fire” shot in front of her and then “two big flares.”
She said the scene quickly turned chaotic as people worked to find water to put out flames and find help.
Law enforcement found more than a dozen unlit Molotov cocktails near where Soliman was arrested. The devices were made up of glass wine carafe bottles or jars with clear liquid and red rags hanging out of the them, the FBI said. Inside his car, law enforcement found papers with the words “Israel,” “Palestine,” and “USAID,” the affidavit says.
Soliman told investigators that he constructed homemade Molotov cocktails after doing research on YouTube and buying the ingredients. He drove to Boulder with the devices in his car and stopped along the way for gas, according to the affidavit.
He said in his interview that his goal was to “kill all Zionists,” the FBI said, and that he intentionally targeted the group and knew they they would be assembled on Sunday afternoon.
“He stated that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting until after his daughter graduated to conduct the attack,” the affidavit says.
The group that was attacked has said it was trying to raise attention to the plight of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The map above highlights Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado, where a man with a makeshift flamethrower yelled “Free Palestine” and hurled an incendiary device into a crowd. (AP Digital Embed)
Authorities say they believe the suspect acted alone
Authorities said Sunday they believe Soliman acted alone and that no other suspect was being sought. No criminal charges were immediately announced but officials said they would move to hold Soliman accountable. He was also injured and was taken to the hospital to be treated. Authorities did not elaborate on the nature of his injuries, but a booking photo showed him with a large bandage over one ear.
State and federal authorities planned to hold a news conference Monday afternoon.
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What we know about the suspect and victims in the Boulder, Colorado, attack
Soliman was living in the U.S. illegally after having entered the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X. McLaughlin said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023 that had expired. DHS did not immediately respond to requests for additional information.
Public records listed Soliman as living in a modest rented townhouse in Colorado Springs, where local media outlets reported federal law enforcement agents were on the scene Sunday.
Shameka Pruiett knew Soliman and his family as kindly neighbors with five children, three young kids and two teenagers, who’d play with Pruiett’s kids in front of their building, share food and hellos. But she said when she saw Soliman on video in Boulder, shirtless and holding bottles with flames licking up the grass in front of him, it was hard to recognize him.
“There had to be something deeply disturbing him, cause that is not the guy we see in the neighborhood,” said Pruiett, leaning on her doorframe and gazing several feet away at Soliman’s apartment. Soliman had never been outwardly political, she said, “he didn’t push his views or values on anyone.”
On Sunday, Pruiett saw law enforcement vehicles waiting on the street throughout the day until the evening, when they spoke through a megaphone telling anyone in Soliman’s home to come out. Nobody came out, and it did not appear anyone was inside, said Pruiett. The raid lasted several hours, she said.
An online resume under Soliman’s name said he was employed by a Denver-area health care company working in accounting and inventory control, with prior employers listed as companies in Egypt. Under education, the resume listed Al-Azhar University, a historic center for Islamic and Arabic learning located in Cairo.
FBI leaders immediately declared the attack an act of terrorism and the Justice Department denounced it as a “needless act of violence, which follows recent attacks against Jewish Americans.”
“This act of terror is being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence based on the early information, the evidence, and witness accounts. We will speak clearly on these incidents when the facts warrant it,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a post on X.
Israel’s war in Gaza began when Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. They are still holding 58 hostages, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 people in Hamas-run Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas, displaced around 90% of the population and left people almost completely reliant on international aid.
The violence comes four years after a shooting rampage at a grocery store in Boulder, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Denver, that killed 10 people. The gunman was sentenced to life in prison for murder after a jury rejected his attempt to avoid prison time by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.
Multiple blocks of the pedestrian mall area were evacuated by police. The scene shortly after the attack was tense, as law enforcement agents with a police dog walked through the streets looking for threats and instructed the public to stay clear of the mall.
Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Brittany Peterson and David Zalubowski in Boulder, Colorado; Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Alanna Durkin Richer and Michael Biesecker in Washington and Jim Mustian in New York contributed to this report.
