Colorado fire attack live updates: Suspect charged with 2 counts of murder, 6 others injured
What we know about the Boulder attack
The man suspected of launching a fire attack in Boulder, Colorado, on a group calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was also charged with assault and causing serious injury to an at-risk adult or someone over 70, and other felony offenses.
Eight people were injured in what Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, whose mother was born in a concentration camp and whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said appeared to be an antisemitic "hate crime."
The injured ranged in age from 67 to 88. One was in critical condition Sunday evening, an FBI official said.
FBI Director Kash Patel on X called the incident "a targeted terror attack.
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The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Woman sues Atlanta officer for allegedly leaving her topless in squad car
A woman has sued an Atlanta police officer for allegedly leaving her breasts exposed while taking her from her house to a squad car – where she sat several hours, topless, while officers stopped and looked at her, with one masked officer opening the car door to take a photo. The incident took place during a pre-dawn, Swat-style raid staged by Atlanta police and agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (or ATF), on 8 February 2024. The agents sought evidence related to the arson of police motorcycles and cars, carried out in opposition to a controversial police training center known as 'Cop City', which has attracted local, national and internet media attention. The raid – including the woman's experience of being left topless for hours – was reported on by the Guardian at the time. The lawsuit, filed 23 May by Atlanta-area attorneys Jeff Filipovits and Wingo F Smith, asserts that the woman's fourth amendment rights protecting her against unreasonable seizure were violated during the raid and draws on details laid out in the Guardian's story. The federal complaint is important as a test of the police's ongoing claims of qualified immunity nationwide – the 'only thing that stands between the government and people seeking to vindicate their constitutional rights', said Patrick Jaicomo, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, where he works on the public interest law firm's 'project on immunity and accountability'. An Atlanta police spokesperson said it doesn't comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit names Amy Smith as plaintiff; Atlanta police officer Frances Raymonville-Watson is named as defendant, as she 'held Ms Smith in custody, unclothed and for hours for no purpose other than to embarrass and humiliate her'. Smith told the Guardian anonymously last year: 'They grabbed me, led me outside and handcuffed me – leaving me completely uncovered.' Officers put her in a squad car, where she remained for 'what seemed like hours', she said at the time. 'While Ms Smith was topless in the back of the squad car, an unknown male officer wearing a face covering opened the rear door of the squad car and took Ms Smith's picture,' the lawsuit alleges. 'While Ms. Smith's chest was uncovered, several officers came and went from the squad car, looking in at her through the window,' it continues. 'The security of the scene and the officers conducting the search did not require plaintiff to be held with exposed breasts,' the lawsuit concludes. Ms. Smith was eventually released. The February 2024 raids followed a publicity campaign lasting several months, including a $200,000 reward for information leading to arrests for arson and 450 billboards promoting the reward in New York, Seattle and other cities. The controversial training center – which officially opened its doors in an invitation-only ceremony in April – attracted global headlines after police shot dead Manuel Paez Terán, or 'Tortuguita', an environmental activist protesting against the project, in January 2023. Opposition to the training center, built on a 171-acre footprint in a forest south-east of Atlanta, has included local and national organizations and protesters, centered on concerns such as unchecked police militarization and clearing forests in an era of climate crisis. Atlanta police officials say the center is needed for 'world-class' training, and to attract new officers. Jaicomo said police raid people's homes across the country every day at hours when they are likely to find people partially clothed or naked, making the incident described in the lawsuit an important one. He pointed to a 2015 eleventh Circuit case out of Georgia affirming a district court finding of 'a broad, clearly established principle that individuals who have been placed in police custody have a constitutional right to bodily privacy'. The Atlanta lawsuit is meaningful, Jaicomo asserted, because 'any case where you have the opportunity to overcome qualified immunity has the potential to set a precedent'. Meanwhile, he said, the 'traumatic experience will stick with her for the rest of her life', referring to Smith. He called the incident an example of 'police doing things to humiliate and punish people' – and of 'the constitutional transgressions taking place thousands of times daily that, if left unaddressed, the government will use more frequently'.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The real inspiration of terrifying attacks on US soil... and an ex-FBI chief's warning the worst is yet to come
Heinous attacks in Colorado and Washington DC show a new face of US political violence that's closer to last year's college campus radicalism than the Islamist extremism of yesteryear, lawmen and experts told the Daily Mail. Chris Swecker, an assistant FBI director in the 2000s, and others said the recent spate of outrages, often aimed at Israelis or Jews, marks a departure from the global wave of jihadist violence of the 9/11 era. Recent strikes were instead inspired by the protests against Israel 's war in Gaza that upended Harvard, Columbia, and other top schools in the months after Hamas militants launched their 7 October, 2023, raids, Swecker said. He spoke after the outrage in Boulder, Colorado, where an attacker tossed petrol bombs at supporters of Israeli hostages, and a deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC. The suspects in those attacks both yelled 'Free Palestine' before they were arrested — echoing the chants from US college campuses and anti-Israel rallies in the months since fighting erupted there in October 2023. Together with the arson attack on the residence of Pennsylvania 's Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, again over the Israel-Hamas war, they may showcase a paradigm shift in political violence in America. Swecker says the men behind these attacks were likely answering the calls to 'Free Palestine from the river to the sea,' and for a 'global intifada' that rang out across US college campuses under the Biden administration. 'The universities have become incubators and enablers,' said Swecker, who led the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division from 2004-2006. 'They are creating an environment that seems to be activating people on the fringes. They hear this coded language of 'Free Palestine,' and they're going to act on it.' He added: 'It's not subtle, we know what it means. It means we're going to kill Jews.' America's so-called 'student intifada' began in earnest at Columbia University last April and spread to some 60 campuses. Students, egged on by radical professors and outside anti-Zionist groups, erected encampments and brought campuses to a standstill as the Gaza war escalated. Some Jewish students described being attacked, harassed and intimidated. Activists say there's a disproportionate use of force in the decades-long territorial conflict. Palestinian Hamas fighters left some 1,200 dead and took 251 others as hostages during their macabre raids on southern Israel. A few dozen remain in Gaza. Israel's assault on Hamas-run Gaza, however, has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, flattened whole towns, and left the population in famine-like misery, leading to credible allegations of war crimes. Estimates of the actual death toll vary widely. That logic appears to have motivated Mohamad Sabry Soliman, 45, the married Egyptian dad-of-five accused of the Boulder attack. Police say he lobbed Molotov cocktails and used a homemade flamethrower to burn attendees of a Jewish demonstration in support of those taken hostage by Hamas, injuring a dozen. He reportedly yelled 'Free Palestine' and 'end Zionists' during the attack. Still, he has not professed a link to ISIS or another jihadist group, and yelled political, not religious slogans, such as the 'Allahu Akbar' often associated with Islamists. Soliman faces federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder that could see him caged for life. His wife and children, dependents on his visa, face deportation. There are similarities to Elias Rodriguez, the college-educated Chicago man accused of shooting and killing two Israeli Embassy workers outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC on May 21. Rodriguez likewise shouted 'Free Palestine,' and also held a red keffiyeh during the attack, it is claimed. His Latino, rather than Muslim, heritage, and long track record as a social justice warrior point to a political motivation. The 31-year-old was in the past aligned to the anti-war Answer Coalition, and the ultra-progressive Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) — groups that led pro-Palestine rallies across the US, including on college campuses. He faces two counts of first-degree murder over the deaths of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. The diplomatic workers were a couple; Lischinsky had bought a ring and was set to propose marriage to Milgrim on a trip to Jerusalem the following week. The trend may also encompass Cody Balmer, the man accused of setting Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro's residence ablaze in Harrisburg in April. The 38-year-old is charged with attempted murder, aggravated arson, burglary, terrorism, and related offenses. Balmer wrote extensively about Israel's war in Gaza before the attack and reportedly described Shapiro as a 'monster' who had 'plans' to harm Palestinians. Balmer also has a track record of minor crimes, mental illness, and marital strife. Julio Rosas, author of Fiery But Mostly Peaceful, a study on far-left activism, said recent attacks show how radical groups are 'elevating their tactics' to stop Israel's 19-month-old assault on Gaza. Activist leaders regularly urge rally attendees to 'bring the war home to the United States' — language that he says barely disguises a blatant call for violence. 'They've been protesting and marching, but the war in Gaza hasn't stopped, so they have to do more radical things to get what they want,' Rosas said. He blamed Answer, PSL, and the Democratic Socialists of America, which have staged protests both on and off college campuses, and which all describe themselves as non-violent movements. Those pro-Palestine campaign leaders 'overlap' with those who once coordinated Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and other far-left causes of recent years, he said. 'Whether it's Gaza, immigration, or George Floyd, the grievances they hyperventilate about are all the same,' he added. 'It's white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism, capitalism.' Ian Miles Cheong, a social commentator and influencer, blames police, politicians and academics for keeping their 'hands off' the rabble rousers who've pushed their followers toward violence. 'Too few college administrations are willing to speak out against them because they're afraid of being canceled,' Cheong said. He, Rosas, and other conservatives praise the Trump administration for cracking down on campus activism, restricting visas for foreign students, and other steps to stop dangerous immigrants from entering the US. 'Protest is fine, but there's nothing peaceful about harassing Jewish students or blockading classrooms and libraries,' said Cheong.
NBC News
7 hours ago
- NBC News
U.S. hits International Criminal Court judges with sanctions over investigation into Israel
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is slapping sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court over the tribunal's investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and in the West Bank. The State Department said Thursday that it would freeze any assets that the ICC judges, who come from Benin, Peru, Slovenia and Uganda, have in U.S. jurisdictions. The move is just the latest step that the administration has taken to punish the ICC and its officials for investigations undertaken against Israel and the United States. 'As ICC judges, these four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC's illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. 'The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies,' Rubio said. 'This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel.' In February, The Hague-based court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, was placed on Washington's list of 'Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons,' barring him from doing business with Americans and placing restrictions on his entry into the U.S. Khan stepped aside last month pending an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct. Within minutes of the administration's announcement, the court condemned its actions. 'These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution,' ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah said in a statement. The new sanctions target ICC Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou, who is from the West African country of Benin and was part of the pre-trial chamber of judges who issued the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year. She also served on the bench that originally greenlit the investigation into alleged Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories in 2021. The 69-year-old was also part of the panel of judges who issued the arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023. Last year, a court in Moscow issued a warrant for her arrest. From Slovenia, Beti Hohler was elected as a judge in 2023. She previously worked in the prosecutor's office at the court, leading Israel to object to her participation in the proceedings involving Israeli officials. Hohler said in a statement last year that she had never worked on the Palestinian territories investigation during her eight years as a prosecutor. Bouth Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, from Peru, and Solomy Balungi Bossa, from Uganda, are appeals judges at the ICC. Each woman has worked on cases involving Israel. Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of and neither recognizes the legitimacy of the court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes over his military response in Gaza after the Hamas attack against Israel in October 2023. Israel strongly denies the allegations. During his first term in office, Trump targeted the ICC with sanctions, voicing displeasure with investigations into Israel and complaints about alleged war crimes said to have been committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Those sanctions were rescinded by President Joe Biden 's administration in early 2021. Rubio said the U.S. would continue to take action to protect its and Israel's interests at the court. 'The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other U.S. ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,' he said. Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the Trump administration's sanctions 'aim to deter the ICC from seeking accountability amid grave crimes committed in Israel and Palestine, and as Israeli atrocities mount in Gaza, including with U.S. complicity.' 'U.S. sanctions on ICC judges are a flagrant attack on the rule of law at the same time as President Trump is working to undercut it at home,' Evenson said in a statement. 'Sanctions are meant to put a stop to human rights violations, not to punish those seeking justice for the worst crimes.'
