Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the man accused of firebombing people marching to raise awareness of Israeli hostages in Gaza, had planned the attack for over a year, local and federal authorities said on Monday as they charged him with attempted murder and a hate crime.
Soliman, 45, allegedly fired two Molotov cocktails into a crowd assembled for the weekly Run for Their Lives in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday. Local authorities said on Monday that the number of people injured had risen to 12, with two people remaining hospitalized.
Soliman, an Egyptian national who entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2022, yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack, said he wanted to “kill all Zionist people” and did not regret his actions, according to affidavits from the FBI and Boulder District Attorney’s Office.
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Soliman told detectives that he had learned about the event online, which is also where he learned to construct the homemade incendiary devices after being denied a gun permit because of his immigration status.
He said he had purchased supplies at Target and Home Depot and had dressed as a gardener carrying flowers, with a backpack containing sprayable gasoline, to gain proximity to the demonstrators. He was armed with 18 Molotov cocktails but threw just two before growing scared, according to a detective who interviewed him.
“Mohamed said he wanted them to all die and that was the plan, he said he would go back and do it again and had no regret doing what he did. Mohamed said anyone who supports the exist of Israel on ‘our land’ is Zionist. Mohamed clarified ‘our Land’ was Palestine,” the detective swore in an affidavit filed with the attorney general’s office..
“Mohamed said it was revenge as the Zionist group did not care about thousands of hostages from Palestine. He said they care about their benefit, money, and power,” the document said. “Mohamed said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine).”
Soliman said he had planned the attack for over a year but had held off until his daughter, one of five children he was raising with his wife in Colorado Springs, graduated from high school. The family lived in Kuwait for 14 or 15 years after leaving Egypt, according to an affidavit for his arrest warrant and a profile of his daughter that appeared in the local newspaper in April, which said they were active members of a local mosque.
For many American Jews, the attack adds to unease amid a string of attacks on Jewish targets because of their perceived support for Israel during its war with Hamas in Gaza. Last month, a man yelled “Free Palestine” after shooting two Israeli embassy staffers to death outside a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. In April, a man was charged with firebombing the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to protest what he said was Shapiro’s stance on the Palestinians.
Run for Their Lives groups in some cities said they had suspended plans for future marches following the attack in Boulder.
The U.S. Justice Department characterized the incident as an “antisemitic terror attack.”
Some, including President Donald Trump, said the incident offered new justification for the Trump administration’s immigration policies, which include efforts to add border security and eject people who are in the country illegally. Soliman had applied for asylum, which would allow him to remain in the United States while his case was being considered; federal officials reportedly did not answer questions on Monday about the status of his application.
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