Suspect charged with hate crime in attack at pro-Israeli rally in Colorado

CBC

4 days ago

A Colorado man has been charged with a federal hate crime for his alleged role in a gasoline-bomb attack at a pro-Israeli rally that injured eight people in Boulder, Colo., state and federal law enforcement officials said Monday.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman was already facing an array of state charges, including attempted murder, after the attack on Sunday on a group seeking to draw attention to hostages seized in the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023.
"No one should ever be subjected to violence of any kind, but our laws recognize that such violence is particularly pernicious when someone is targeted because of their race, their religion or their national origin," J. Bishop Grewell, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado, said at a news conference on Monday.
"My office and our partners hope justice will help heal the people in this community and in the communities throughout the country shaken by yesterday's attack."
An affidavit filed by the U.S. Justice Department on Monday said Soliman, 45, had planned the attack for more than a year. Investigators found 14 gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails near where the suspect was detained.
The police also found a gasoline canister in his car parked nearby and a weed sprayer filled with gasoline at the scene. Soliman told investigators that he had learned how to make the fire bombs from YouTube.
The affidavit refers to a video posted on social media during the attack showing Soliman "shirtless, pacing back and forth while holding what appear to be Molotov cocktails."
The suspect, who was being detained in lieu of $10 million US bail, according to official records, told police he "wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead," the affidavit said.
WATCH | Soliman faces a number of charges:
Colorado attack suspect on expired visa charged with assault, use of explosives
4 hours ago
Duration 5:09
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the 45-year-old suspect in an attack on a pro-Israeli rally in Colorado that injured eight people, is being held on a number of charges, including assault and the use of explosives. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says Soliman had overstayed a visa and had an expired work permit.
The attack was the latest act of violence aimed at Jewish Americans linked to outrage over Israel's escalating military offensive in Gaza. It followed the fatal shooting of two Israel Embassy aides outside Washington, D.C.'s Capital Jewish Museum last month.
According to the complaint, Soliman lived with his wife and five children in Colorado Springs, a city about 160 kilometres south of Boulder. The affidavit said that he waited until after his daughter's graduation to conduct the attack.
Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said Soliman had overstayed a tourist visa and had an expired work permit.
The departments of Homeland Security and Justice did not respond to requests for comment. The Denver office of the FBI, which is handling the case, did not immediately respond to emails or phone calls seeking details in the case.
"There are millions of individuals like this that we are attempting to locate from the past administration that weren't properly screened that were allowed in," Lyons said during a news conference in Boston. "I will tell you that's a huge effort for ICE right now."
Lyons declined to provide more information, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously said Soliman had entered the country in August 2022 and filed for asylum the following month.
"The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country," the spokesperson said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post that such attacks would not be tolerated. "This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland," he said.
Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years of age were transported to hospitals after the attack, Boulder police said. Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told CBS Colorado that the 88-year-old victim was a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe.
Officials on Monday said four more people with minor injuries have also come forward.
The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district near the University of Colorado, during an event organized by Run for Their Lives, an organization devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of the 2023 attack on Israel.
Sunday's attack was not the first high-profile incident of mass violence in Boulder, a university town that attracts many young professionals and outdoor enthusiasts. In 2021, a gunman fatally shot 10 people, including an off-duty police officer, in a local supermarket.