The man suspected of a Molotov cocktail attack on Jewish protesters in Colorado is facing federal hate crime charges, officials said on Monday, June 2nd, as President Donald Trump’s administration vowed to pursue “terrorists” living in the U.S. on visas.
Egyptian Mohammed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown fire bombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered on Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Twelve people were hurt in the attack in the city of Boulder, two of them seriously. Most of those taken to the hospital have now been discharged.
J. Bishop Grewell, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, told reporters the 45-year-old suspect had been planning the attack for a year.
Soliman threw “Molotov cocktails at a group of men and women, some of them in their late 80s, burning them as they peacefully walked on a Sunday to draw attention to Israeli hostages held in Gaza,” he said.
“When he was interviewed about the attack, he said he wanted them all to die. He had no regrets, and he would go back and do it again.”
Soliman told investigators he had previously tried to buy a gun, but had been thwarted because he was not a U.S. citizen.
Police who rushed to the scene of the attack found 16 unused Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed sprayer containing gasoline that investigators say he had intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower.
Soliman faces federal hate crime charges that could result in a life sentence, as well as state charges for attempted murder that could carry hundreds of years prison time.
U.S. Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.
