According to both prosecution and defense accounts in court records, Soliman tossed two Molotov cocktails at the demonstrators, who were calling for the return of people abducted from Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught.<\/p>\n
\t According to prosecutors, Soliman also used a makeshift blowtorch fashioned from a commercial weed sprayer during his attack, in which he yelled \u201cFree Palestine!\u201d as the gasoline bombs he lobbed at the crowd burst into flames.<\/p>\n Authorities identified a total of 29 victims, including some who were burned or injured while fleeing or who were close enough to be considered targets of attempted murder. One victim, 82-year-old Karen Diamond, succumbed to her wounds later that month.<\/p>\n \t In a statement read in court by a prosecutor, Diamond\u2019s sons asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again \u201csince he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew and Ethan Diamond said their mother suffered \u201cindescribable pain\u201d for over three weeks before her death. \u201cIn those weeks, we learned the full meaning of the expressions living hell and fate worse than death,\u201d Diamond\u2019s sons said in the statement.<\/p>\n In another statement read by a prosecutor, a physician who was a victim of the attack described the helplessness of seeing Diamond suffering and knowing that she would not survive.<\/p>\n \t Speaking to the court through an interpreter for nearly half an hour on Thursday, Soliman offered apologies to the victims and condolences for Diamond\u2019s death. \u201cThere are no words that can express my sadness for her passing,\u201d Soliman said.<\/p>\n He said he wasn\u2019t asking for leniency at sentencing for his convictions in state court and wanted prosecutors pressing federal hate crime charges against him not to seek the death penalty.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I went back, I would not have done this, as this is not according to the teaching of Islam,\u201d Soliman said. \u201cWhat I did came out of myself and only myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty in the federal case, according to Soliman\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n Investigators allege Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration. He threw two of the more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had brought with him. Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.<\/p>\n According to federal prosecutors, the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. According to an FBI agent\u2019s affidavit, Soliman \u201cstated that he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.\u201d<\/p>\n Soliman \u201cstated that he hated the Zionist group and did this because he hated this group and needed to stop them from taking over \u2018our land,\u2019 which he explained to be Palestine,\u201d according to the same affidavit, and \u201cstated he would do it [conduct an attack] again.\u201d<\/p>\n \t The rally Soliman attacked was calling for the return of the 20 living hostages whom the Hamas terror group was then holding captive in the Gaza Strip, along with the bodies of 28 more. The hostages\u2019 return was secured in October, through a US-brokered deal.<\/p>\n Soliman\u2019s federal defense lawyers argue he should not have been charged with hate crimes, because he was motivated by opposition to Zionism. A victim\u2019s political views \u2014 unlike their race, religion or national origin \u2014 are not themselves the basis for federal hate crime charges.<\/p>\n Soliman\u2019s attorneys have also said in court filings that the attack \u201cwas profoundly inconsistent\u201d with Soliman\u2019s prior conduct and \u201ccame as a total shock to his family.\u201d<\/p>\n The defendant had been living with his family in a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs \u2014 about 97 miles (156 kilometers) away \u2014 at the time of the attack. He had moved to the US from Kuwait in 2022 with his wife and their five children and worked in a series of low-paying jobs.<\/p>\n The couple divorced in April.<\/p>\n \t Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, was living in the US illegally at the time of the attack.<\/p>\n Soliman\u2019s then-wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children spent 10 months in immigration detention until a federal judge in Texas ordered their release in April.<\/p>\n An immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay in the US and issued a deportation order. But US District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio allowed their release on the condition that El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring.<\/p>\n Soliman\u2019s attorneys seek to block the family\u2019s deportation until a judge determines they won\u2019t need to be present for court proceedings in his federal case.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DUAL22121-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tMohamed Sabry Soliman (right), the suspect who allegedly attacked pro-Israel activists (left) in Boulder, Colorado on June 1, 2025. (Screen capture\/X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/karen-e1751376404743.jpg\")
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\n\t\tKaren Diamond. (Boulder University Women\u2019s Club)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AP25155096905042-e1758313317751-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA man affixes a bouquet of flowers to a makeshift memorial for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County courthouse, June 3, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AP25159765704856-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPeople march in Boulder, Colorado, to call for the release of Israeli hostages, on June 8, 2025, a week after a terror attack against a similar rally in the city. (AP\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2025-06-01T000000Z_1387584800_MT1ZUMA0005TLV7X_RTRMADP_3_ZUMA-e1750480093351-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPolice investigate the scene of an attack on a rally for Hamas-held hostages, on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025. (Colorado Sun via ZUMA Press Wire)<\/p>\n
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