An 82-year-old woman who was injured in a firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado, has died
DENVER — An 82-year-old Colorado woman who was injured in a Molotov cocktail attack on demonstrators in support of Israeli hostages this month has died, according to court documents filed Monday.
Karen Diamond died as a result of 'the severe injuries that she suffered in the attack,' Boulder County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman was indicted last week on 12 hate crime counts in the June 1 attack in downtown Boulder. He is accused of trying to kill the eight people who were hurt when he threw Molotov cocktails — bottles filled with flammable liquid that are ignited — as well as other people nearby.
Soliman's attorney, David Kraut, entered the not guilty plea on Soliman's behalf during a hearing Friday. Soliman was being represented by public defenders who do not comment on their cases to news media.
Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder's Pearl Street pedestrian mall. But he threw just two of his over two dozen Molotov cocktails while yelling 'Free Palestine.'
Soliman, who is also being prosecuted in state court for attempted murder and other charges, told investigators he tried to buy a gun but was not able to because he was not a 'legal citizen.'
Soliman did not speak during the hearing last week, and he listened to translations provided by an Arabic interpreter through headphones.
The Egyptian national has been living in the U.S. illegally with his family, according to federal authorities.
Soliman posed as a gardener and wore a construction vest to get close to the group before launching the attack, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors say the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual national origin. An attack motivated by someone's political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Ranger fired for hanging transgender flag in Yosemite and park visitors may face prosecution
A group of people, including Shannon Joslin, a Yosemite National Park ranger and biologist who was fired, hang a transgender flag on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, Calif., May 20, 2025. (Mitchell Overton via AP) A Yosemite National Park ranger was fired after hanging a pride flag from El Capitan while some visitors face potential prosecution for alleged violations of protest restrictions that have been tightened under U.S. President Donald Trump. Shannon 'SJ' Joslin, a ranger and biologist who studies bats, said they hung a 66-foot wide transgender pride flag on the famous climbing wall that looms over the California park's main thoroughfare for about two hours on May 20 before taking it down voluntarily. A termination letter they received last week accused Joslin of 'failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct' in their capacity as a biologist and cited the May incident. 'I was really hurting because there were a lot of policies coming from the current administration that target trans people, and I'm non-binary,' Joslin, 35, told The Associated Press, adding that hanging the flag was a way to 'tell myself ... that we're all safe in national parks.' Joslin said their firing sends the opposite message: 'If you're a federal worker and you have any kind of identity that doesn't agree with this current administration, then you must be silent, or you will be eliminated.' Park officials on Tuesday said they were working with the U.S. Justice Department to pursue visitors and workers who violated restrictions on demonstrations at the park that had more than 4 million visitors last year. The agencies 'are pursuing administrative action against several Yosemite National Park employees and possible criminal charges against several park visitors who are alleged to have violated federal laws and regulations related to demonstrations,' National Park Service spokesperson Rachel Pawlitz said. Joslin said a group of seven climbers including two other park rangers hung the flag. The other rangers are on administrative leave pending an investigation, Joslin said. Flags have long been displayed from El Capitan without consequences, said Joanna Citron Day, a former federal attorney who is now with the advocacy group Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility. She said the group is representing Joslin, but there is no pending legal case. On May 21, a day after the flag display, Acting Superintendent Ray McPadden signed a rule prohibiting people from hanging banners, flags or signs larger than 15 square feet in park areas designated as 'wilderness' or 'potential wilderness.' That covers 94 per cent of the park, according to Yosemite's website. Parks officials defend restriction on protests Parks officials said the new restriction on demonstrations was needed to preserve Yosemite's wilderness and protect climbers. 'We take the protection of the park's resources and the experience of our visitors very seriously, and will not tolerate violations of laws and regulations that impact those resources and experiences,' Pawlitz said. It followed a widely publicized instance in February of demonstrators hanging an upside down American flag on El Capitan in the wake of the firing of National Park Service employees by the Trump administration. Among the small group of climbers who helped hang the flag was Pattie Gonia, an environmentalist and drag queen who uses the performance art to raise awareness of conservation issues. For the past five years, Gonia has helped throw a Pride event in Yosemite for park employees and their allies. She said they hung the transgender flag on the granite monolith to drive home the point that being transgender is natural. Trump has limited access to gender-affirming medical treatments, banned trans women from competing in women's sports, removed trans people from the military and changed the federal definition of sex to exclude the concept of gender identity. Gonia called the firing unjust. Joslin said they hung the flag in their free time, as a private citizen. 'SJ is a respected pillar within the Yosemite community, a tireless volunteer who consistently goes above and beyond,' Gonia said. Jayson O'Neill with the advocacy group Save Our Parks said Joslin's firing appears aimed at intimidating park employees about expressing their views as the Trump administration pursues broad cuts to the federal workforce. Since Trump took office, the National Park Service has lost approximately 2,500 employees from a workforce that had about 10,000 people, Wade said. The Republican president is proposing a US$900 million cut to the agency's budget next year. Parks have First Amendment areas Pawlitz said numerous visitors complained about unauthorized demonstrations on El Capitan earlier in the year. Many parks have designated 'First Amendment areas' where groups 25 or fewer people can protest without a permit. Yosemite has several First Amendment areas, including one in Yosemite Valley, where El Capitan is located. Park service rules on demonstrations have been around for decades and withstood several court challenges, said Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers. He was not aware of any changes in how those rules are enforced under Trump. ___ Associated Press journalist Brittany Peterson contributed reporting from Denver. Matthew Brown And Hannah Schoenbaum, The Associated Press
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Lawyer argues Meta can't be held liable for gunmaker's Instagram posts in Uvalde families' lawsuit
Crosses are surrounded by flowers and other mementos at a memorial, June 9, 2022, for the victims of a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) LOS ANGELES — A lawsuit filed by families of the Uvalde school shooting victims alleging Instagram allowed gun manufacturers to promote firearms to minors should be thrown out, lawyers for Meta, Instagram's parent company, argued Tuesday. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The families sued Meta in Los Angeles in May 2024, saying the social media platform failed to enforce its own rules forbidding firearms advertisements aimed at minors. The families, who were present at last month's hearing, did not appear in court, with a lawyer citing the back-to-school season. Many plaintiffs attended the hearing virtually, he said. In one ad posted on Instagram, the Georgia-based gunmaker Daniel Defense shows Santa Claus holding an assault rifle. In another post by the same company, a rifle leans against a refrigerator, with the caption: 'Let's normalize kitchen Daniels. What Daniels do you use to protect your kitchen and home?' The lawsuit alleges those posts are marketed toward minors. The Uvalde gunman opened an online account with Daniel Defense before his 18th birthday and purchased the rifle as soon as he could, according to the lawsuit. He also owned various Instagram accounts and had an 'obsessive relationship' with the platform, at times opening the app more than 100 times a day, plaintiffs' lawyers found in an analysis of the shooter's phone. Plaintiffs say minors can access gun content on Instagram Meta attorney Kristin Linsley argued that the families provided no proof that minors, including the Uvalde gunman, even read the Daniel Defense posts on Instagram. She also said the posts didn't violate Meta's policies because they weren't direct advertisements and did not include links to purchase any products. Katie Mesner-Hage, representing the victims' families, said the defence's claim is 'fundamentally unfair,' as the plaintiffs don't have access to Meta data that would indicate whether the shooter encountered those posts. She added that if the content had landed on the shooter's feed, as the plaintiffs allege, then Meta 'not only knew about it, they designed the system so it would be delivered to him.' 'They knew more about him than anyone else on the planet,' she said. Linsley said content advertising firearms for sale on Instagram is allowed if posted by 'brick-and-motor and online retailers,' but visibility of those posts was restricted for minors under Meta's advertising policies from the end of 2021 to October 2022. 'This is not a playbook for how to violate the rules. This is actually what the rules are,' Linsley said. The plaintiff's team, however, showed a fake profile they created for a 17-year-old boy earlier this month, through which they were able to search Daniel Defense's Instagram account and see a post that included a picture of a gun, as well as a link to the gun manufacturer's website. When the link was clicked, the gun-maker's website opened, and the team was able to select a firearm and add it to their cart, all within Instagram's app — an experiment that refutes Meta's assertion that posts relating to firearms aren't visible to users under 21, Mesner-Hage said. Linsley said in her rebuttal that the experiment was done this year and not in 2021 to 2022, which is when the policy she described was in effect. The families have also sued Daniel Defense and video game company Activision, which produces 'Call of Duty.' Case hinges on social media's responsibility for content creation Linsley said the Communications Decency Act allows social media platforms to moderate content without being treated as publishers of that content. 'The only response a company can have is to not have these kinds of rules at all,' Linsley said. 'It just gets you down a rabbit hole very quickly.' Mesner-Hage argued Meta is not protected by the act because social media platforms don't just host speech, but help curate it through its algorithms. Daniel Defense, she said, didn't have to pay for ads to get free access to Meta's analytical data through its business account on Instagram. That data shows the company which age bracket and gender engaged most with a specific post. 'Daniel Defense is not on Instagram to make friends. ... They're on there to promote their product,' Mesner-Hage said. 'It's not a paid advertisement, but I would struggle to describe this as anything other than an advertisement.' The lawsuit alleges that firearm companies tweaked their online marketing to comply with Meta's policies, including by avoiding the words 'buy' or 'sell' and not providing links to purchase, and that the social media company did not protect users against such strategies. Last month, lawyers for Activision also argued that legal proceedings against them should be thrown out, saying the families allegations are barred by the First Amendment. The families alleged that the war-themed video game Call of Duty trained and conditioned the Uvalde gunman to orchestrate his attack. Lawyers for the plaintiffs asked the judge to allow them to amend their lawsuit with the new information they presented Tuesday before ruling on the defence's motion. The defence claimed that was unnecessary, as the case would not have merit even with the amendments. The judge has yet to rule on Activision's motion and did not immediately rule on the Meta case. Itzel Luna, The Associated Press
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Former Miami Heat security officer pleads guilty to stealing and selling millions of dollars' worth of team memorabilia
LeBron James' Miami Heat game-worn jersey from NBA finals game 7 victory in 2013 on display at Sotheby's auction House in January 2023 in New York. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource A former Miami Heat security officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to transporting and transferring millions of dollars' worth of team memorabilia, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. Marcos Tomas Perez, 62, changed his plea from not guilty to guilty at a hearing Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida, admitting to the facts of the case. 'He's depressed, naturally, but he accepts responsibility for his behavior and we're gonna work through this issue in his life,' his attorney Robert Buschel said after the hearing, according to NBC Miami, which Buschel later confirmed to CNN. Perez worked with the NBA team for five years from 2016 to 2021 and later with the league from 2022 to 2025. During his time with Miami, Perez was a part of the security detail team on game days at the now-named Kaseya Center, home of the Heat, court documents state. Perez accessed a secured equipment room that housed valuable memorabilia multiple times, stealing more than 400 game-worn jerseys and other items that were intended for a future Heat museum. Perez later sold the items to online brokers, according to court documents. Perez sold more than 100 of the stolen items, worth approximately US$1.9 million and shipped them across state lines, often below fair market value. He sold a LeBron James NBA Finals jersey for nearly $100,000, which was later sold for $3.7 million at a Sotheby's auction, according to the court documents. In April, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez's residence and recovered close to 300 more game-worn jerseys and memorabilia, according to prosecutors. The Heat confirmed the items were taken from the arena. Perez, who is a retired 25-year officer for the City of Miami Police Department, is scheduled to be sentenced on October 31. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a maximum fine of $250,000. 'I hope that the judge will consider all factors in his life and his history as a good person, he was an exemplary police officer in the City of Miami, he's been retired for close to 10 years,' Buschel added, according to NBC Miami. 'This was an unfortunate set of decisions that he made and he's going to accept responsibility for that.' The Heat declined to comment. By Wayne Sterling, CNN
