Colorado: Man charged with hate crime after petrol bomb and 'flamethrower' attack at rally for Israeli hostages

Sky News

3 days ago

A man has been charged with a hate crime after people at a US rally in support of Israeli hostages were targeted with petrol bombs and a makeshift flamethrower.
Four women and four men aged between 52 and 88 were injured and taken to hospitals after being targeted by a man shouting "Free Palestine", officers said.
They said the injuries ranged from "very serious" to "more minor" and one of them was in a critical condition.
The FBI said it was a targeted "act of terrorism" and named the suspect as 45-year-old Mohamed Soliman from El Paso County, Colorado.
Soliman has been charged with the federal crime of causing bodily injury because of actual or perceived race, colour, religion, or national origin.
Two senior law enforcement officials told Sky News' US partner network NBC News that Soliman is an Egyptian national who seemingly acted alone. They said he has no previous significant contact with law enforcement.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said Soliman was in the US "illegally".
She posted on X: "He entered the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired on February 2023. He filed for asylum in September 2022."
President Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the "horrific" attack in Boulder "will not be tolerated in the United States of America".
He added the suspect "came in through Biden's ridiculous open border policy, which has hurt our country so badly. He must go out under 'Trump' policy. Acts of terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law".
Eyewitnesses said the suspect threw Molotov cocktails, an improvised bomb made from a bottle filled with petrol and stuffed with a piece of cloth to use as a fuse, at people attending the demonstration.
He also used a "makeshift flamethrower" during the attack, according to Mark Michalek, a special agent in charge of the FBI's Denver field office.
Police chief Steve Redfearn said the attack happened at around 1.26pm on Sunday and that initial reports were that "people were being set on fire".
"When we arrived we encountered multiple victims that were injured, with injuries consistent with burns," Mr Redfearn told the media.
Boulder's police chief said the attack happened as a "group of pro- Israel people" were peacefully demonstrating.
The walk is held regularly by a volunteer group called Run For Their Lives, which aims to raise awareness of the hostages who remain in Gaza.
An initial review of Soliman's possible social media accounts has not answered questions about a motive or pointed to any particular ideology, two senior law enforcement officials said.
Video from the scene showed a bare-chested man shouting and clutching two bottles after the attack.
Other footage showed him being held down and arrested by police as people doused one of the victims with water.
Nearby there appeared to be a large black burn mark on the ground.
A large part of downtown Boulder was cordoned off as sniffer dogs and the bomb squad searched for potential devices.
Lynn Segal, an eyewitness, said: "These shoots of fire, linear, about 20ft long, spears of fire, two of them at least, came across right into the group, about 15ft from me."
The 72-year-old said two neighbours of hers, a husband and wife in their 80s, were at the demonstration. She added that the wife was one of the victims and appeared to be the most seriously injured.
"They're both elders in their 80s, and you can't take something like this assault to your body as easily as someone younger," she said.
A statement from Boulder's Jewish community said: "An incendiary device was thrown at walkers at the Run For Their Lives walk on Pearl Street as they were raising awareness for the hostages still held in Gaza."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Monday saying he, his wife and the nation of Israel were praying for the full recovery of the people wounded in the "vicious terror attack" in Colorado.
"This attack was aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews," he said.
US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a prominent Jewish Democrat, said it was an antisemitic attack.
"This is horrifying, and this cannot continue. We must stand up to antisemitism," he said on X.
The attack follows the arrest of a Chicago-born man in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington DC two weeks ago.
Tensions are simmering in the US over Israel's war in Gaza.
There has been an increase in antisemitic hate crime, as well as moves by some supporters of Israel to brand pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic.
President Trump's administration has detained protesters without charge and pulled funding from elite universities that have permitted such demonstrations.