Suspect in Boulder attack faces federal hate crime charge

The man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails Sunday into a group that had gathered in downtown Boulder in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza told authorities he had planned the attack for a year.

Mohamed Soliman, 45, who lives near Colorado Springs, has been charged with a federal hate crime in the attack that injured eight people.  He is being held at the Boulder County jail. 

Soliman is scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. in Boulder County to face state charges in the attack, which is being investigated as an act of terrorism.

The victims ranged in age from 52 to 88 and included a holocaust survivor. At least one of them was in critical condition Sunday evening, police said. 

The FBI, which is investigating the attack alongside Boulder police, said Soliman yelled “free Palestine” as he attacked the group of people walking on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall to raise awareness of the hostages kidnapped during Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Soliman confessed to the attack and told police he would do it again, the Associated Press reported.

At the scene, police found 14 unlit Molotov cocktails. They were made out of glass wine carafes or Ball jars with gasoline inside and had red rags hanging out of them, according to a federal arrest affidavit.

Inside his car, police found paperwork with the words “Palestine,” “Israel,” and “USAID,” court documents said. Soliman told investigators that he researched how to make Molotov cocktails on YouTube and picked up the gasoline on his drive to Boulder from Colorado Springs.

“He stated that he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” the affidavit said. “Soliman stated he would do it again.”

Soliman told authorities that he targeted the group demonstrating in Boulder after learning about their gathering during an internet search. 

“Soliman stated that he hated the Zionist group and did this because he hated this group and needed to stop them from taking over ‘our land,’ which he explained to be Palestine,” the affidavit said.

Soliman told authorities he lives  with his wife and five children and that he waited to carry out the attack until after his daughter had graduated from school, the affidavit says.

A federal magistrate signed an arrest warrant for Soliman on Monday. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that Soliman will be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law.”

“We will never tolerate this kind of hatred,” she said.

The attack targeted members of the group Run for their Lives, which has been peacefully gathering on the Pearl Street Mall for nearly two years. The group of demonstrators had stopped at the Boulder County Courthouse near the intersection of Pearl and 13th streets when they were set on fire. 

The attack happened on the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is marked with the reading of the Torah. The Boulder incident came 11 days after a man who also yelled “free Palestine” as he allegedly shot two Israeli diplomats outside of a Jewish museum in Washington.

Mark D. Michalek, special agent in charge of the FBI in Denver, said Sunday evening that authorities are investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. 

Soliman came to the U.S. in August 2022 on a B-2 visa that expired in February 2023, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. B-2 visas are used by people entering the U.S. temporarily for things like vacations or to get medical care. 

This image provided by the Boulder Police Dept. shows Mohamed Sabry Soliman. (Boulder Police Dept. via AP)

Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022. McLaughlin did not answer The Colorado Sun’s question on the status of his petition. 

McLaughlin said Soliman is living in the U.S. illegally.

Public records listed Soliman as living in a rented townhouse near Colorado Springs, where local media outlets reported federal law enforcement agents were on the scene Sunday. 

An X account under the suspect’s name and with a profile photo that appeared to match the man arrested was created in 2022 and had never made a post. He followed only 18 other accounts, including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the mayor of Colorado Springs, the local police department and several area news outlets.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that its deputies had four contacts with Soliman since December 2022, all of which were traffic stops. Records also show that three noncriminal calls of service were made from a residence tied to Soliman in unincorporated El Paso County — once from a juvenile and two hang-up calls to 911, the sheriff’s office 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.

The FBI, Boulder police and Boulder County district attorney are expected to provide more information at a news conference scheduled for 2:30 p.m. 

Investigators said Monday morning that no one injured in the attack had died despite online jail records showing that Soliman was being held on suspicion of first-degree murder. That’s an “arrest-only” charge that will be modified as prosecutors firm up their case. 

It can be days, if not weeks, before Colorado prosecutors file formal charges against suspects in crimes as complex as the attack Sunday in Boulder.

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.

“This attack was aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews,” Netanyahu said.

The Islamic Center of Boulder condemned the targeted violence in a statement Monday.

“We call on all Coloradans to reaffirm our unwavering support for the First Amendment rights and protections of all people. Every individual and every community has the constitutional right to peaceful assembly and free expression. These fundamental freedoms must be respected and safeguarded for everyone, regardless of their views or background,” the center said.

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 a 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.

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.

Aaron Brooks, a Jewish Boulder resident, arrived at the Run for their Lives demonstration late Sunday — just moments after the attack. He found a grisly scene.

“I saw smoke on the ground. I saw blood on the ground. I saw smoke coming from a person — literally a human being burning,” he said.

The attacker was still standing there and was holding bottles in his hands. Brooks said he had never seen the man before. 

Brooks heard the man say something to the effect of “you burn my people” or “you’re burning my people.”

Brooks began tending to the injured, including an older woman who he said had survived the Holocaust. 

This is a developing story that will be updated. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.