Police say Mohamed Sabry Soliman arrived at the scene Sunday with 18 Molotov cocktails but threw just two while yelling “Free Palestine."Show Caption
Soliman is accused of attacking a weekly "Run for Their Lives" demonstration on Sunday.Twelve people ages 52 to 88, suffered burns ranging from serious to minor, police said.Editor's Note: This article has been updated to accurately reflect the mission of Run for Their Lives to raise awareness about the hostages held in GazaThe wife and five children of the suspect in the fiery assault on a gathering to support the Israeli hostages in Gaza in Boulder, Colorado, have been detained by immigration officials and are facing immediate deportation, Trump administration officials said Tuesday.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a social media post that Mohamed Sabry Soliman's family members are in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials."This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,'' Noem said on the X platform. "We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.''FBI and police officials said Monday the family has cooperated with investigators. Nonetheless, the White House said on X later Tuesday the relatives "COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT.'' Officials have not clarified their immigration status.Soliman, a native of Egypt who lives in Colorado Springs, is accused of attacking a weekly "Run for Their Lives" demonstration on Sunday. Twelve people ages 52 to 88 suffered burns ranging from serious to minor, police said. Two remain hospitalized.Soliman, 45, came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in late 2022 and stayed after the visa expired, requesting asylum. His daughter, Habiba Soliman, graduated from high school with honors on May 29 and said she saw the family's move to the U.S. as a chance to fulfill her dream of attending medical school.Suspect had 18 Molotov cocktails, threw only twoSoliman told investigators he did not complete his attack plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” according to a police affidavit.He 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 explained that, to him, anyone who supported the existence of Israel on "our land" is Zionist. He defined "our land" as Palestine, the affidavit said.Soliman arrived at the scene Sunday with 18 Molotov cocktails but threw just two while yelling “Free Palestine,” according to the affidavit. Soliman told authorities he took a class and learned to shoot a gun while planning the attack − only to find out he could not purchase a gun because he was not a U.S. citizen.He said he then taught himself how to make Molotov cocktails from YouTube videos, the affidavit says. He told authorities no one else knew of his plan but that he did leave a journal with his family.A federal affidavit charging Soliman with a hate crime and attempted murder says he learned about the demonstration from an online search. It says Soliman told investigators he planned the attack for a year and waited for Habiba to graduate from high school before executing it.Soliman's daughter won local scholarshipHabiba Soliman was profiled in an April story published in the Colorado Springs Gazette as one of its "Best and Brightest" senior class scholarship winners. Habiba told the paper she arrived in the United States as a high school sophomore speaking little English.She attended Thomas Maclaren School, a K-12 charter school, where she not only worked on her English but signed up to learn German as her foreign language requirement. She also started an Arabic club.Habiba was born in Egypt but lived in Kuwait for 14 years. Because she was not Kuwaiti, attending medical school there as she wanted was not an option, she said. The move to the United States provided a chance to fulfill her dream, she said.“Coming to the USA has fundamentally changed me,” she said. “I learned to adapt to new things even if it was hard. I learned to work under pressure and improve rapidly in a very short amount of time. Most importantly, I came to appreciate that family is the unchanging support.”A vigil and a Jewish festival in BoulderThe Boulder Jewish Community will host a vigil Wednesday afternoon, according to the Mountain States office of the Anti-Defamation League, which combats antisemitism."In moments like these, our strength is in our unity,'' the organization said in an e-mail.The ADL also said the Boulder Jewish Festival will take place as scheduled Sunday, but with changes meant to acknowledge the reality of the weekend attack and provide a healing environment."Based on the fact that Run for Their Lives was targeted, we want to center this event in furtherance of their cause, which is to bring awareness to the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, while making space to recognize the victims in our community,'' the ADL said.Soliman's path from Egypt to BoulderSoliman is a native Egyptian who entered the United States in late 2022 on a tourist visa. He later requested asylum and remained in the country after his visa expired in February 2023. He, his wife and their children lived in Colorado Springs, about 100 miles south of Boulder. Soliman worked as an Uber driver, the company confirmed.He drove to Boulder to attack the demonstrators three days after Habiba's graduation, according to investigators.Unable to purchase a gun, Soliman told investigators he turned to gasoline, glass bottles and a backpack sprayer often used by landscapers to dispense pesticide or fertilizer. Soliman told investigators he stopped several times on his drive from Colorado Springs to buy bottles for the Molotov cocktails, the 87-octane gas to fill them and to Home Depot to buy flowers as camouflage to make it easier to "get as close as possible to the group."− Trevor HughesAttacked group focuses on release of hostagesRun for Their Lives, the organization whose members were targeted Sunday, seems a curious choice for an attack.The group, which said it has an active presence in 230 locations worldwide, doesn't advocate for a political agenda but rather for the release of hostages held in Gaza since the brutal assault on Israeli border communities led by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023.Participants meet once a week to walk or run a one-kilometer route − .62 of a mile − to raise awareness about the hostages' plight, which continues nearly 20 months after the Israel-Hamas war started. Of the 58 captives still believed to be in Gaza, 35 have been confirmed dead and another three are in grave health, the Times of Israel reported."Focus on humanity,'' the Run for Their Lives website says. "This is about innocent children, women, the elderly, and other civilians being held by terrorists − not about the war.''Trump administration pledges crackdownTodd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the immigration story of Soliman is far from unique."There are millions of individuals like this that we are attempting to locate from the past administration that weren't properly screened that were allowed in," Lyons said.President Donald Trump, in a social media post Monday, called Sunday's attack "yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland."Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trump in his own post, warning that "in light of yesterday’s horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you."Boulder suspect's next court date is ThursdaySoliman appeared in court on Monday and was ordered held on $10 million bond. He is due back in court Thursday. 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.Soliman also faces state charges including 16 counts of attempted murder and 18 counts of possession of incendiary devices and related offenses. The attempted-murder counts alone are punishable by up to 384 years in prison, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.More federal and/or state charges could be added later, authorities said.Boulder was scene of mass shooting in 2021Boulder has borne the pain of a mass attack before. In 2021, a gunman killed 10 people during a rampage at a supermarket. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 25, was convicted in September of 10 counts of murder and related charges.On March 22, 2021, Alissa opened fire at King Soopers grocery store, killing two people in the parking lot and eight people in the store. Alissa pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but he was found competent to stand trial in 2023 after spending time at a mental hospital.Defense attorney Kathryn Herold said during her closing argument that the shooting was "born out of disease, not choice. ... Mr. Alissa committed these crimes because he was psychotic and delusional." Prosecutors said Alissa was able to distinguish right from wrong, that he was deliberate and calculated in his actions during the shooting and he hunted down his victims in an attempt to kill as many people as possible. Contributing: Reuters
