Family of Boulder attack suspect taken into immigration custody
DENVER (KDVR) — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem confirmed the family of the suspect in Sunday's attack in Boulder of Israeli hostage supporters is in federal custody.
Noem said the department is investigating whether they knew about Mohamed Sabry Soliman's alleged plans to attack demonstrators during a planned peaceful march calling for the release of the hostages in Gaza. Soliman has been charged at both the federal and state levels of attacking the demonstrators, who were from the group Run for Their Lives, with Molotov cocktails as they walked along the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder.
Suspect planned Boulder attack for a year, officials say: Live updates
Twelve people were injured in the attack, and three people remained at UCHealth for burns as of Monday evening.
'Today, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado terrorist, and illegal alien, Mohamed Soliman, into ICE custody,' Noem said in a video posted on X Tuesday afternoon. 'We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.'
The White House took to X on Tuesday, saying the family is being processed for expedited removal and could be removed as soon as Tuesday night.
'The only defense, the only way to stop that is if the defendant's wife expresses a fear to the Department of Homeland Security that she's afraid to go back to go back to Egypt for whatever reasons she may have,' Immigration Attorney Matthew Barringer told FOX31's Vicente Arenas.
Soliman and his family lived in Colorado Springs, and neighbors of the Boulder attack suspect told FOX31's Nexstar partner station FOX21 they were 'shocked,' and 'scared' after the attack.
What to know as investigation builds in Boulder's Pearl Street Mall attack
'I've had good words with him, he was a nice regular guy,' said one neighbor. 'He went to work with his family, you didn't bother him, he didn't bother you, so I'm completely shocked. He was super nice.'
An attendee of the mosque that Soliman and his family also attended told the New York Times she was stunned he would do something like that, given the kindness of his other family members. She also said her own daughter looked up to one of Soliman's children.
Soliman is facing both state and federal charges.
'Exactly which of those two judicial proceedings goes first, or to what extent the feds will wait and see what happens in the state court is a little unknown at this time,' FOX31 Legal Analyst Christopher Decker told Arenas.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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37 minutes ago
Federal authorities arrest dozens for immigration violations across Los Angeles
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Advertisement In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass said the activity was meant to 'sow terror.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill President Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended his tactics earlier this week against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. He has said ICE is averaging about 1,600 arrests per day and that the agency has arrested 'dangerous criminals.' Protests recently broke out after an immigration action at a restaurant in San Diego and in Minneapolis, when federal officials in tactical gear showed up in a Latino neighborhood for an operation they said was about a criminal case, not immigration. Advertisement Dozens of protesters gathered Friday evening outside a federal detention center in Los Angeles where they believed those arrested had been taken, chanting 'set them free, let them stay!' Other protesters held signs that said 'ICE out of LA!' while others led chants and shouted from megaphones. Some scrawled graffiti on the building facade. Officers holding protective shields stood shoulder to shoulder to block an entrance. Some tossed tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. Officers wearing helmets and holding batons then forced the protesters away from the building by forming a line and walking slowly down the street. 'Our community is under attack and is being terrorized. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now,' Salas, of CHIRLA, said at an earlier press conference while surrounded by a crowd holding signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Yliana Johansen-Mendez, chief program officer for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said her organization was aware of one man who was already deported back to Mexico after being picked up at a Home Depot on Friday morning. The man's family contacted her organization and one of their attorneys was waiting for hours to speak to him inside the detention center, she said. Authorities later said he had already been removed, and the man later contacted his family to say he was back in Mexico. Videos from bystanders and television news crews captured people being walked across a Home Depot parking lot by federal agents as well as clashes that broke out at other detention sites. Advertisement KTLA showed aerial footage of agents outside a clothing warehouse store in the fashion district leading detainees out of a building and toward two large white vans waiting in a parking lot. The hands of the detained individuals were tied behind their backs. The agents patted them down before loading them into the vans. The agents wore vests with the agency acronyms FBI, ICE and HSI. Armed agents used yellow police tape to keep crowds on the street and sidewalk away from the operations. Officers throw smoke bombs to disperse crowd Aerial footage of the same location broadcast by KABC-TV showed officers throwing smoke bombs or flash bangs on the street to disperse the people so they could drive away in SUVs, vans and military-style vehicles. The station showed one person running backward with their hands on the hood of a moving white SUV in an apparent attempt to block the vehicle. The person fell backward, landing flat on the ground. The SUV backed up, drove around the individual and sped off as others on the street threw objects at it. Immigrant-rights advocates used megaphones to speak to the workers, reminding them of their constitutional rights and instructing them not to sign anything or say anything to federal agents, the Los Angeles Times reported. Katia Garcia, 18, left school when she learned her father, 37-year-old Marco Garcia, may have been targeted. Katia Garcia, a U.S. citizen, said her father is undocumented and has been in the U.S. for 20 years. 'We never thought this would happen to us,' she told the Los Angeles Times. Pitts O'Keefe said in a statement that one additional person was arrested for obstruction. The California branch of the Service Employees International Union said its president was arrested while exercising his right to observe and document law enforcement activity. Advertisement
