The victim count rose to eight, one of them a Holocaust survivor, in Sunday’s flamethrower attack on a small group of marchers in Boulder who were drawing attention to the plight of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza.
The suspect, 45-year-old Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, yelled “Free Palestine” as he wielded a makeshift flamethrower against the group on Boulder’s courthouse lawn at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, authorities and witnesses said. The FBI is investigating the attack as a terrorist act. He was in the country illegally, as his latest visa had expired in March, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told ABC News and other outlets.
Arrested at the scene, Soliman was later charged with two potential counts of first-degree murder, one with “extreme indifference” and one with “deliberation with intent — nonfamily — gun,” NBC News reported. Authorities had not confirmed any deaths as of Monday morning.
He was also charged with one count of attempted murder, one count of first-degree assault, one count of causing serious injury to an at-risk adult or someone over 70 and one count of using explosives or incendiary devices, NBC News said, citing the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
Soliman was scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. local time Monday, CNN reported.
The victims, four women and four men, were aged 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 militant 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 Shavuot. Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy 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 Palestine. 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.
With News Wire Services
