Hate crime case against Boulder suspect can go forward, judge rules
Mohamed Soliman is accused of lobbing Molotov cocktails at a group advocating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
A federal judge has ruled there is enough evidence to proceed with a hate crime case against a man accused of injuring more than a dozen people after lobbing Molotov cocktails at people in Boulder, Colorado who were supporting Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Fifteen people ages 52 to 88 were injured with burns ranging from serious to minor when Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, launched the attack, authorities say. He lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after coming to the United States on a tourist visa in late 2022 and staying after it expired.
Soliman faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if he's found guilty of the federal hate crime charges against him. The native of Egypt also has been charged in state court with 118 criminal counts, including attempted murder and other offenses. He sat expressionless June 18 in federal court in Denver.
What happened in the attack in Boulder?
Soliman is accused of lobbing Molotov cocktails and using a makeshift flamethrower to target Run for Their Lives, a group advocating for the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and held in Gaza for more than 20 months.
The attack in Boulder came less than two weeks after two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot to death in Washington, D.C., amid a rise in antisemitism incidents across the United States and as tensions have escalated over the war in Gaza, prompted by a brutal Hamas-led assault on Israeli border communities Oct. 7, 2023.
What do authorities say was the suspect's motive?
Soliman said "he wanted them to all die. ... He said he would go back and do it again and had no regret doing what he did," Boulder Detective John Sailer wrote in court papers. Soliman said that, to him, anyone who supported the existence of Israel on "our land" is a Zionist. He defined "our land" as Palestine, court documents said.
Soliman hurled two of the 18 Molotov cocktails he'd brought with him, authorities said, yelling "Free Palestine."
A federal affidavit charging Soliman with a hate crime and attempted murder says he learned about the march from an online search. He said he waited for his daughter to graduate from high school before executing the plot, according to the affidavit. He hoped to use a gun and had taken shooting classes, but his immigration status prevented him from purchasing a firearm, the affidavit says.
What's happening in the immigration case
In her first public statement, Soliman's wife, Hayam El Gamal, who along with her five children is being held at a family detention facility in south Texas, said they are "in total shock.''
El Gamal and the children, now ages 4 to 18, were arrested by immigration agents June 3, and the White House said they would be subjected to expedited deportation. But a federal judge in Denver blocked that move the next day, saying they were entitled to due process. By then the family had been transferred to the detention facility in Texas, where the case will be heard.
“We are grieving, and we are suffering,'' El Gamal said in social media remarks posted June 18. "We are treated like animals by the officers, who told us we are being punished for what my husband is accused of doing.’’
El Gamal said the family has been cooperating with authorities, and she expressed concern for both the victims of the attack and her children's well-being.
El Gamal made the comments through Eric Lee, the lawyer representing her and the children, who posted them to his X account. Lee added that a federal judge extended a temporary restraining order keeping the Trump administration from deporting the family, who came to the United States from Kuwait in 2022 and sought asylum. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What is the group Run for Their Lives?
The national organization Run for Their Lives has sponsored walks and runs in hundreds of cities since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel, the deadliest on Jews since the Holocaust, as about 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage by Hamas.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since the onset of the war, which Israel launched in response to the attack.
Contributing: Phaedra Trethan, Michael Loria and Trevor Hughes