Police charge man who yelled 'free Palestine' while attacking pro-Israel group in Colorado

The man suspected of using a “makeshift flame-thrower” and other incendiary weapons to attack a group of people in Colorado as they gathered to raise awareness of hostages in Gaza faces at least eight criminal charges, including a hate crime.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, yelled “free Palestine” during Sunday's attack in the Rocky Mountain city of Boulder, said Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver field office.

The FBI said Mr Soliman told police he had planned the attack for a year and that it was specifically against what he described as a “Zionist group”.

An affidavit says Mr Soliman confessed to the attack after being taken into custody on Sunday and told the police he would do it again. He posed as a gardener to get close to the group and had petrol in a backpack sprayer but told investigators he did not spray it on anyone but himself “because he had planned on dying".

“He said he had to do it, he should do it, and he would not forgive himself if he did not do it,” police wrote in an affidavit. He did not carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before".

Twelve people were injured and had wounds consistent with reports of being set on fire, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said.

Mr Soliman was arrested and taken to hospital for treatment, but authorities did not elaborate on his injuries. Other preliminary charges include 16 counts of attempted murder in the first-degree and using explosives or an incendiary device while committing a felony.

In a video circulating on social media, Mr Soliman can be seen, shirtless, waving two bottles filled with liquid near the site of the attack. He repeatedly shouts “how many children have you killed” and “end Zionists” as people attend to the injured lying on the ground nearby.

Following the attack, the FBI immediately described the violence as a “targeted terror attack”, although local police have been more cautious in ascribing a motive.

Mr Soliman is an Egyptian national, government officials confirmed to CBS News. In 2022, he arrived in California on a non-immigrant visa that expired in February 2023 and had recently been living in Colorado Springs.

Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a post on X that Mr Soliman “is illegally in our country”.

The White House said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the incident.

“Acts of terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This is yet another example of why we must keep our borders secure, and deport illegal, anti-American radicals from our homeland,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Demonstrators with a volunteer group called Run for Their Lives, which organises run and walk events to call for the release of the hostages who remain in Gaza, had gathered at the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, a four-block area in downtown Boulder frequented by tourists and students.

The attack came at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

The incident was immediately condemned by US officials as well as world leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement yesterday saying the “attack was aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews”.

The UAE also condemned the attack in the “strongest terms”, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirming the country's “permanent rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism targeting innocent people”.

The Anti-Defamation League said the attack was a result of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist incitement. “We’re witnessing a global campaign of intimidation and terror deliberately directed against the Jewish people,” ADL chief executive and national director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

Law enforcement authorities in the US struggle with a sharp rise in anti-Semitic violence.

It comes about a week after a man was arrested over the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington. He shouted “free Palestine” as he was led away by police.

This is not the first time Boulder has been the site of extreme violence: in 2021, a gunman opened fire in a grocery store, killing 10 people. Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa, originally from Syria, was sentenced to life in prison for murder after a jury rejected his attempt to avoid prison time by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.