The man who attacked a group of people in Boulder, Colo., as they called for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza was charged with a federal hate crime Monday after telling police he researched for a year to find a “Zionist group” to target and asserting he would do it again, the U.S. Department of Justice said in an affidavit.
A total of 12 people were injured, one of them a Holocaust survivor, when 45-year-old Mohammed Sabry Soliman attacked them with a “makeshift flamethrower” Sunday afternoon outside the Boulder County Courthouse downtown. Michael Dougherty, district attorney for the 20th Judicial District, said at an afternoon briefing that the total had been revised from eight after four more victims came forward. Two were still hospitalized as of Monday.
Soliman was charged with 16 counts of first-degree attempted murder — eight for attempted murder with intent and active deliberation and eight for attempt to murder with extreme indifference — two counts of use of an incendiary device, and 16 counts of attempted use of an incendiary device.
Soliman told police that in his quest “to kill all Zionist people” he had taught himself how to make Molotov cocktails using YouTube videos, then filled a collection of glass jars and wine bottles with gas he bought along the 100-mile drive from his home in Colorado Springs.
The husband and father of five told police he had held off the attack until after his daughter graduated from school, according to the affidavit.
Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” as he attacked the group at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, authorities and witnesses said. The FBI is investigating the attack as a terrorist act. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the Egyptian national was in the country illegally, as his latest work authorization visa had expired in March.
Soliman had applied for asylum when his tourist visa expired in February 2023. Several media reports say he had a pending application to renew his work authorization, but DHS did not comment.
He was held on $10 million bond at the Boulder County Jail, officials said.
Witnesses told authorities that Soliman had arrived at the scene at around 1 p.m. Sunday toting a garden sprayer loaded with gasoline, then held a lighter in front of the fuel stream as he aimed at the marchers.
Authorities said the suspect posed as a gardener to get close to the group he was targeting.”
He wore a utility vest over his shirt but took both off when they started to catch fire, witnesses told police. Investigators later found 16 more Molotov cocktails scattered around the area of the attack, FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said in Monday’s briefing.
Police believe he acted alone.
Soliman’s court appearance was set for 3:30 p.m. local time Monday.
Cops said he claimed to have had second thoughts once the attack was underway and threw two out of the 18 incendiary devices he possessed. They stated in an affidavit that the defendant “got scared and had never hurt anyone before.”
The victims, four women and four men, were ages 52 to 88 and sustained injuries ranging from serious to minor, officials said. They were rushed to area hospitals, at least one of them in critical condition, Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said. UCHealth told KCNC-TV that two victims had arrived by helicopter and were in the burn unit.
The eldest victim had fled the Holocaust during World War II, Rabbi Israel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado-Boulder, told KCNC. Another is a professor at the university.
They were all part of a volunteer group, Run for Their Lives, which organizes weekly walks in downtown Boulder to call for the release of the 58 hostages still being held by Hamas since its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The terrorist group killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. About a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be alive.
Soliman was waiting for the group on the lawn outside the Boulder County Courthouse and hurled liquid-filled bottles at the marchers, setting them on fire, Run for Their Lives organizer Miri Kornfeld told KUSA-TV. Bystanders rushed to douse the flames, hurriedly filling any containers they could find with water from nearby fountains.
“It was the most horrific thing that I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” one witness, Brian H., told KUSA. “If you can think of a butter knife pulling up skin, that’s kind of what it looked like. Like someone had spread the skin off of these people’s legs.”
Police arrived to find Soliman shirtless, yelling and waving more bottles around. They evacuated several blocks as canine and bomb squad teams scoured for other incendiary devices.
Security was amped up at religious sites throughout the U.S., including New York City and New Jersey, in the wake of the attack, which occurred on the eve of the Jewish festival of Shavuot. Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul each condemned the attack.
Sunday’s incident occurred barely two weeks after two Israeli Embassy staffers were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., by a man who also invoked Palestinians. In April an arsonist set fire to the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on the first night of Passover, citing what he said was the governor’s stance on the war in Gaza. Everyone got out safely.
Boulder itself had barely healed from a shooting rampage four years earlier in which a gunman killed 10 people at a King Soopers supermarket in March 2021. That shooter is serving life in prison without parole.
Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn described the violence as a “heinous terrorist attack in our city,” but said he was pleased with where investigators stood during a Monday afternoon press conference.
He said law enforcement is piecing together a timeline using surveillance footage, license plate readers and whatever help they get from the public to learn more about Soliman.
“He was not on our radar in Boulder,” Redfearn told reporters. “We had no prior contact with him here.”
District Attorney Michael Dougherty said the suspect could be sentenced to 384 years in prison if convicted on state charges.
With News Wire Services
Originally Published: June 2, 2025 at 11:13 AM EDT
