The number of victims wounded in Sunday’s firebombing attack on peaceful demonstrators in downtown Boulder rose on Wednesday to 15, as well a dog, authorities said.
Ranging in age from 25 to 88, the victims include eight women and seven men, according to Boulder County officials, who did not release further details.
The injuries ranged from serious to minor. A spokesperson at a hospital treating three of the victims said they had “requested privacy to heal.”
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation told the Daily News that suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman had attempted to buy a handgun at a Colorado Springs sporting goods store in November of last year. A month later, he tried to obtain a concealed handgun permit through the CBI and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
Both requests were denied, a CBI spokesman said in a statement Wednesday, without giving a reason.
Soliman, 45, told police he’d planned to kill all 20 of the people participating in the march organized by Run for Their Lives, a group calling for the release of 58 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. Unable to get a gun, he resorted to homemade Molotov cocktails fashioned out of wine bottles and jars that he filled with gasoline, he told police.
After making the 100-mile drive from his Colorado Springs home to Boulder, Soliman allegedly hurled two of 18 explosives at the marchers while yelling “Free Palestine.” He then stopped “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit. Investigators later found 16 unused Molotov cocktails in the area.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Boulder Mayor Aaron Brocket and other elected officials from both sides of the aisle gathered with faith and community leaders Wednesday at the spot where the attacks took place.
“Hate, antisemitism, terrorism and violence have no place in Colorado and no place in the United States of America,” Polis said. “We will not be silenced or scared. We will not let the demons of hate define us.”
While Soliman claimed his acts “had nothing to do with the Jewish community” and everything to do with targeting “the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land,” he also told police he had no regrets and would do it again, according to court documents.
Soliman is currently being held at Boulder County Jail on $10 million bond. He’s facing numerous state charges of attempted murder and has been federally with a hate crime. Authorities have said more charges could be pending.
Soliman’s family was detained by ICE on Tuesday and slated for expedited removal with their visas revoked, even though he told police they knew nothing of his plan, according to Homeland Security officials.
Soliman, an Egyptian national, first arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa and filed for asylum that September. He was granted work authorization in March 2023, but that expired in March of this year.
He’s next scheduled to appear in court Thursday.
With News Wire Services
