6 days ago
Colorado firebomb suspect planned attack for a year, prosecutors say
During a brief court appearance on Monday, Soliman appeared via a video feed from the Boulder County Jail wearing an orange jumpsuit. He answered 'yes' to some procedural questions from the judge but otherwise did not speak.
Soliman's attorney, public defender Kathryn Herold, said during the hearing she would reserve any arguments regarding his bond conditions until a future date. He was initially detained in lieu of a$10m (R179m) cash bail.
The suspect faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if found guilty on the federal hate crime charge because he was also charged with attempted-murder in state court.
The many attempted murder counts are punishable by up to 384 years in prison, Boulder County district attorney Michael Dougherty said.
Department of homeland security officials said Soliman had entered the US in August 2022 on a tourist visa, filed for asylum the next month and remained in the country after his visa expired in February 2023.
'There are millions of individuals like this who we are attempting to locate from the past administration who weren't properly screened and were allowed in,' Todd Lyons, acting director of US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE), said during a press conference in Boston. I
n a social media post, Trump called Sunday's attack 'yet another example of why we must keep our Borders secure, and deport illegal, anti-American radicals from our homeland'.
Under former president Joe Biden, immigration and customs enforcement prioritised arrests of serious criminals and called for officers to consider humanitarian factors when detaining migrants.
Authorities had identified eight victims by late Sunday, four women and four men, 52 to 88 years of age. Two victims remained hospitalised on Monday. In addition, four more victims who were less seriously injured came forward on Monday.
Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told CBS Colorado the 88-year-old victim was a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe.
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 supermarket.
