Boulder suspect charged with 118 counts including attempted murder
DENVER (KDVR) – Over 100 charges have been formally filed against the suspect in the Boulder, Colorado, terror attack that injured 15 people on Sunday.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces 118 charges. He is accused of throwing Molotov cocktails into a group of people who were holding a peaceful gathering at the Pearl Street Mall. Soliman also faces a federal hate crime charge.
Boulder attack now has 15 victims, officials say
Charges were filed by the 20th Judicial District Attorney's Office on Thursday. The charges are for various alleged crimes, including:
28 counts: Criminal attempt to commit murder in the first degree
5 counts: Assault in the first-degree – at-risk person
4 counts: Assault in the first-degree
1 count: Assault in the third degree
5 counts: Criminal attempt to commit assault in the first degree
2 counts: Use of explosives or incendiary devices
16 counts: Attempt to commit use of explosives or incendiary devices
1 count: Cruelty to animals
56 counts: Crime of violence
Soliman, from Egypt, overstayed his tourist visa and was living in the country illegally, according to the Department of Homeland Security. His wife and five children were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
An FBI affidavit said Soliman confessed to the attack and allegedly told the police he would do it again. According to the criminal complaint, the suspect told police he had been planning the attack for a year and waited until after his daughter's graduation to attack. He told investigators he researched and specifically targeted a 'Zionist group.'
Witnesses describe 'terrifying' scene of attack at Pearl Street Mall in Boulder
The group was holding a demonstration, which the city of Boulder said is a weekly peaceful event, as part of the Run for Their Lives organization, according to the complaint. The group hosts global running and walking events where local communities meet once a week to call for the release of the hostages held by Hamas.
Authorities said 15 people and one dog were hurt. The victims range in age from 25 to 88, including one who is a Holocaust survivor.
During a press conference on Thursday, officials announced that three people remained in the hospital from the attack.
The hearing on Thursday at the Boulder County Jail lasted for three minutes. Soliman was present in a livestream wearing an orange jumpsuit. He stood in a sectioned-off area of the courtroom that was not visible to the public, with a glass wall separating the public from Soliman, the attorneys and the judge.
Members of the public were present, but there were no victims sitting on the benches that were designated for them.
The judge asked Soliman a couple of questions, including one about when the next hearing would take place and another on whom he must not contact as this court process moves forward.
'The people had also asked for a protective order on the 4th of June. Does the defendant want to respond to that motion, or are you content with me ruling on it without a formal response?' District Court Judge Nancy Salomone asked.
'We have no objection to that request at this time,' Soliman's Defense attorney, Kathryn Herold, said.
FBI warns of threat to Israeli, Jewish communities after Boulder attack, others
Herold is the public defender who represented the man convicted in the 2021 Boulder King Soopers supermarket shooting, in which 10 people were killed. The Boulder County Assistant District Attorney in the Soliman case is Ken Kupfner, who also helped prosecute the King Soopers case.
Soliman's next hearing on state charges is on July 15.
A federal hearing on the hate crime charge is scheduled for Friday afternoon at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Denver.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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USA Today
12 minutes ago
- USA Today
Divisions deepen in wealthy, liberal Boulder after antisemitic attack
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After the attack, someone posted "Wanted" signs on the Pearl Street Mall just steps from the scene, naming the majority of city council members as guilty of "complicity in genocide" for refusing to pass a ceasefire resolution and not divesting from businesses that are helping Israel wage its war against Hamas. "Not only has the rhetoric become increasingly centered around violence and division but we have an increasing amount of cowardice, from cowardly administrators, cowardly government officials," said Adam Rovner, who directs the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver. "We're seeing it much more clearly now. And unfortunately Jewish communities are paying the cost." Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces more than 118 state and federal charges in connection with the attack, including hate-crime accusations. Investigators say he confessed and remains unrepentant, telling them he deliberately targeted the marchers because he considered them a "Zionist Group." Divisions continue after Pearl Street attack Amid the extreme positions on the Israel-Hamas war, Run for their Lives believed most people could get behind their message. The national Run for their Lives organization has sponsored walks or runs in hundreds of cities and towns since Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust in which over 1,000 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage. As of June 5, 56 hostages are still being held by Hamas, although that number includes both the living and presumed dead. On June 1, as she had dozens of times in the past, Turnquist was pushing her Australian shepherd Jake in a stroller as the group made its way past the historic Boulder County Courthouse on Pearl Street pedestrian mall. 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The conflict between the marchers and counter-protesters is a microcosm of the vicious disputes that have long been on display in Boulder, where Palestinian students disrupted classes earlier this year. Turnquist, the protest marcher, said knowing the group lacked the full support of local elected officials made it harder to feel comfortable during those Sunday protests. She said she went into a Boulder shop at the start of the Gaza war while wearing a necklace with a Jewish symbol on it. The shopkeeper suggested she hide it, so she didn't become a target, she said. "One of the things I remember saying was ... the masks are going to come off and we're going to see who the antisemites are. We're going to see them for who they are. And sure enough it started happening all over," Turnquist said. "It was people that I didn't even think would be antisemites ‒ it was some friends." Nationally, polls have shown that younger Americans are more likely to side with Palestinians than with Israel, including young Jews. And an April 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 31% of Jews younger than 35 felt Hamas' reasons for fighting were valid, compared to just 10% for Jews aged 35 and older. Turnquist said the Sunday marches were deliberately non-political: They didn't call for attacks on Hamas or for more retaliation by Israel. Instead, they focused on the one thing they thought everyone would agree with. To Soliman, that apparently didn't matter. According to investigators, he researched the protest group online, took concealed-weapons classes and planned his attack for a year. Video recordings of the attack captured Soliman shouting "Free Palestine" as he threw Molotov cocktails into the crowd of marchers, setting fire to several victims, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor. "Mohamed said it was revenge as the Zionist group did not care about thousands of hostages from Palestine," Boulder police wrote in an arrest affidavit. "Mohamed said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine)." Soliman's motivation, as reported by police, mirrored similar language used by the sole member of the Boulder City Council who declined to sign onto a group statement from city leaders condemning the attack. Councilmember Taishya Adams condemned the attack but said she declined to sign the group statement, which identified Soliman's actions as antisemitic, because it didn't specifically note that he was also motivated by what she considers anti-Zionism. "If we are to prevent future violence and additional attacks in our community, I believe we need to be real about the possible motivations for this heinous act," Adams wrote in a statement explaining her decision. "Denying our community the full truth about the attack denies us the ability to fully protect ourselves and each other." Responded Councilmember Mark Wallach: "Your efforts to make what I think is a pedantic distinction as to whether a man who attempted to burn peaceful elderly demonstrators alive − to burn them alive, Taishya − was acting as an antisemite or an anti-Zionist is simply grotesque." Jewish groups in Boulder have previously tangled with Adams over what they say are her own antisemitic remarks regarding Palestine, and pro-Palestinian protesters repeatedly disrupted city council meetings. Adams did not return a request for comment from USA TODAY. On June 5, the first meeting after the attack, the mayor announced that in-person public comment would be prohibited because pro-Palestinian protesters have so often disrupted meetings. Among those who have watched protesters disrupt council meetings was Barbara Steinmetz, a Holocaust survivor burned in the June 1 attack. In a video interview last year, Steinmetz recounted what it was like to attend council meetings alongside pro-Palestinian protesters, including one interaction with a woman carrying a sign referencing "from the river to the sea," the rallying cry of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which called for erasing Israel. "I turned to her and said, 'Do you realize that that means you want to kill me? You want me destroyed?' But she just turned away," Steinmetz said. "Jews in Boulder and maybe Denver and probably in cities all around the world, are afraid of wearing their Jewish stars. They're taking down their mezuzahs so that no one will know that it's a Jewish house. They're not identifying themselves because they're frightened." 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Or they were standing as allies alongside Jews," the Rocky Mountain Anti-Defamation League said in a statement to USA TODAY. A report released last month found that antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2024 hit a record high for the fourth consecutive year. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security on June 5 issued a security alert warning that more antisemitic violence could be coming. "The ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters," the security agencies said in the warning. "Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States." Survivor returns to site of the attack Run for their Lives organizers say they remain undeterred as they gear up for this weekend's march. "This didn't happen in a vacuum. 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And she promised to be back walking every Sunday until all the hostages are home.
Yahoo
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USA Today
7 hours ago
- USA Today
Boulder firebombing suspect charged with hate crime in federal court
Boulder firebombing suspect charged with hate crime in federal court Show Caption Hide Caption Authorities charged alleged Boulder attacker with attempted murder Authorities formally charged Mohamed Sabry Soliman with 118 criminal counts including dozens of attempted murder charges. The suspect in a Boulder, Colorado, attack on a gathering to support Israeli hostages in Gaza made an initial appearance on June 6 in federal court where he was formally charged with a hate crime. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, is accused of targeting the group at a pedestrian mall with Molotov cocktails and a makeshift flamethrower on June 1, according to a criminal complaint. He threw the makeshift firebombs at the Jewish demonstrators while he was shouting "Free Palestine," according to federal court filings detailing the suspected hate crime. Officials said 15 people between the ages of 25 and 88 were injured with burns. A judge ordered Soliman back in court on June 18 for a hearing where prosecutors will begin presenting evidence, according to court filings. Soliman appeared in court with an Arabic translator. Soliman, an Egyptian native who authorities said overstayed a tourist visa to the United States, also appeared in a state courtroom on June 5, where he was charged with another 118 criminal counts, including attempted murder, using explosive devices, attempting to use an incendiary device, assault on someone over the age of 70 and other charges. He's expected back in court for the state charges in July. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the attack was antisemitic. In a federal criminal complaint, authorities said Soliman admitted to investigators that "he wanted to kill all Zionist people" and wanted to stop them from taking over "our land," referring to Palestine. The federal hate crime charge could carry a sentence of up to life in prison if he is convicted. USA TODAY has reached out to Soliman's defense attorney for comment. 'We are better than this': Holocaust survivor burned in Boulder speaks after attack What happened in the Boulder attack? The attack happened the afternoon of June 1 at the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder. The group Run for Their Lives was holding a weekly demonstration advocating for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants. Soliman, who told investigators he'd been planning the attack for a year, threw two lit Molotov cocktails into the crowd while yelling 'Free Palestine,' the federal criminal complaint said. When he was taken into custody, authorities found an additional 16 Molotov cocktails and a weed sprayer with gasoline. "As a result of these preliminary attacks, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism," Mark Michalek, special agent in charge at the FBI's Denver field office, said after the attack. The injured victims had burns that ranged from minor to serious. Three were still hospitalized, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said on June 5. Who is the suspect, Mohamed Soliman? Soliman, who lived in El Paso County, Colorado, has worked as an Uber driver and has five children. He told investigators that he waited for his daughter to graduate from high school before executing his planned attack, the criminal complaint said. Soliman entered the United States in August 2022 on a B-2 tourist visa that expired over two years ago, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. An affidavit said he was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years before moving to Colorado. McLaughlin said Soliman applied for asylum in September 2022. He tried to purchase a gun but opted to use the incendiary devices instead when he realized he couldn't buy a gun legally because of his citizenship status, according to the court records. He also said he learned how to make the Molotov cocktails online. Soliman told law enforcement he left an iPhone at the house, hidden in a desk drawer, with messages to his family. He also left behind a journal, the criminal complaint said. Family faces possible deportation Soliman's wife and five children were detained by immigration officials after his arrest and faced immediate deportation, Trump administration officials said. A federal judge temporarily blocked them from being deported on June 4. U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Gallagher said deporting the family without adequate process could cause "irreparable harm." FBI and police officials said the family has cooperated with investigators, and Soliman said his family had no knowledge of his plans. The visas of his wife and five children have been revoked, multiple media outlets including the New York Times reported. His daughter Habiba Soliman graduated from high school on May 29 and said she hoped to attend medical school. Her father told investigators he waited until after her graduation to carry out the attack.
