Details of the attack on a pro-Israel group in Colorado continue to emerge after the bombing stunned the country on Sunday.
The attack took place in Boulder, Colorado, around 1:30 p.m. Sunday as the Run for Their Lives group participated in a walk calling for the release of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
Eight people, including senior citizens, were injured after a man yelling “Free Palestine” set participants on fire using “a makeshift flamethrower” and threw an incendiary device into the crowd.
The FBI, which is investigating the incident as a targeted terrorist attack and an act of “ideologically motivated violence,” has identified Mohamed Sabry Soliman as a suspect.
Who is the suspect?
Soliman is an Egyptian national who has been in the United States illegally since 2022, having allegedly overstayed his visa granted during the Biden administration. He entered the country in August 2022, arriving in California on a nonimmigrant visa that expired in February 2023 before he settled in Colorado Springs, according to reports.
The Trump administration appeared to confirm the revelations late Sunday evening when White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller condemned the Biden-era “suicidal migration” policy.
“A terror attack was committed in Boulder, Colorado by an illegal alien,” Miller said in a statement.
“He was granted a tourist visa by the Biden Administration and then he illegally overstayed that visa. In response, the Biden Administration gave him a work permit,” Trump’s top adviser said. “Suicidal migration must be fully reversed.”
The suspect was shirtless, yelling at the crowd, and holding two containers of clear liquid in his hands. Soliman was arrested at the scene and booked into the Boulder County Jail, where he is being held on a $10 million bond.
Soliman faces charges on two counts of first-degree murder — one with “extreme indifference” and one listed as “deliberation with intent — nonfamily — gun,” according to authorities.
He also faces charges of one count of attempted murder, one count of first-degree assault, one count of causing serious injury to an at-risk adult or someone over 70, and one count of using explosives or incendiary devices, per the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
Who are the victims?
Four women and four men, who ranged in age from 52 to 88, were injured during the Sunday attack, according to police. Some were left with severe wounds from burns after a man hurled a Molotov cocktail and used a flamethrower at the Run for Their Lives group. Two victims were flown to a nearby hospital’s burn unit via helicopter, according to UCHealth.
The eldest victim, Rabbi Israel Wilhelm, was a Holocaust survivor and the Chabad director at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The attack happened at the start of Shavuot, a Jewish holiday that is marked with the reading of the Torah. It occurred days after police arrested a man who appeared to be a pro-Palestinian activist for allegedly killing two Jews at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
What is Run for Their Lives?
Run for Their Lives was started by a group of Jewish people living in California, according to its website. The group hosts a short walk or run every week in events across the country to advocate the release of the hostages Hamas took on Oct. 7, 2023.
“You don’t need to be Jewish or Israeli to be disturbed by this crisis—all people around the world should be,” the website says.
“Innocent children, women, the elderly, and young people should not be living in tunnels 20 meters underground for over a year—they should be in their homes with their families. Until this crisis is resolved, the world risks normalizing this unbearable situation. Our focus is not on the ‘how’ (pressure world leaders or military pressure). We are solely focused on the ‘what’: doing everything possible to bring them home!” it continues.
One of the group’s organizers, Omer Shachar, told CBS News that he reached out multiple times about enhancing security for the event. The Washington Examiner has reached out to Boulder police for confirmation.
How are officials responding?
The FBI was in Boulder within two hours, according to Director Kash Patel. Deputy Director Dan Bongino said the attack is being investigated as an act of “ideologically motivated violence.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the attack, saying the victims were targeted by the “cold blood perpetrator” because “they were Jews.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) decried the attack as a “heinous act of antisemitism,” while Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) condemned the Egyptian suspect for targeting people for “peacefully marching to draw attention to the plight of the hostages who have been held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for 604 days.”
TWO ISRAELI EMBASSY STAFF MEMBERS KILLED IN SHOOTING OUTSIDE CAPITAL JEWISH MUSEUM
“As the American Jewish community continues to reel from the horrific antisemitic murders in Washington, D.C., it is unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack here in Boulder, on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot no less,” Polis said.
“The suspect should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he continued.