Two law-enforcement officials maintain police lines to keep the public out near the scene of an attack on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado on June 1, 2025.
Photo: Helen H. Richardson/Denver Post/Getty Images
A Colorado event to raise awareness of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas descended into chaos on Sunday afternoon when a suspect threw an incendiary device into the assembled crowd and wielded a makeshift flamethrower in an attack that injured eight people. Authorities arrested a suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, at the scene, and the incident is being investigated as an act of terror. Here’s what we know about the developing situation.
At 1:26 p.m. on Sunday, Boulder Police Department officers were called to the scene of the Pearl Street Mall, an outdoor shopping mall, following reports of an attack. Witnesses told police that a man had thrown multiple Molotov cocktails into the crowd and used a “makeshift flame thrower” against the assembled group. The suspect also reportedly shouted “Free Palestine” during the attack.
Witnesses told CNN that bystanders moved to aid the victims burned in the attack. “There were people on the ground and a bunch of others running over with buckets and bottles and whatever they could carry water in,” a local store owner said. “Everyone was dumping water on the burned people, especially one woman on the ground who was totally torched from her hair to her legs.”
Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, confirmed that the agency was on the ground in Colorado conducting an investigation into the incident. “This act of terror is being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence based on the early information, the evidence, and witness accounts. We will speak clearly on these incidents when the facts warrant it,” he said on Sunday evening.
It was a weekly walk/run event organized by the local chapter of Run for Their Lives, an organization formed in the aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas that advocates for the release of Israeli hostages taken by the terrorist group. Per the group’s website, local chapters gather weekly in a designated location to take part in a 1 km. walk/run to raise awareness.
When authorities arrived on the scene, they arrested Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian man from El Paso County, and later transported him to a nearby hospital to assess him for injuries before being charged. He is believed to have acted alone.
Boulder district attorney Michael Dougherty announced at a Monday press conference that Soliman is facing 16 counts of attempted murder among additional charges of assault and use of an incendiary device. He’s currently being held on $10 million cash bail and is set to appear in local court Monday afternoon.
Soliman is additionally facing a federal hate crime charge. According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman confessed to committing the act in an interview and said that he had been planning his actions for more than a year and had researched how to construct Molotov cocktails. He told the agents that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead” and that he would commit the act all over again.
Near the scene, law enforcement discovered 16 unlit Molotov cocktails in a container as well as a backpack weed sprayer that was filled with a flammable liquid believed to be gasoline. Soliman reportedly told law enforcement that he turned to using the Moltotov cocktails after he was unable to purchase a gun due to his immigration status.
“The Department of Justice has swiftly charged the illegal alien perpetrator of this heinous attack with a federal hate crime and will hold him accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Our prayers are with the victims and our Jewish community across the world,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, confirmed on social media that Soliman was in the United States on an expired work visa. “He entered the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired on February 2023. He filed for asylum in September 2022,” she said.
The New York Times reports that Soliman lived in Colorado Springs with his wife and five children and worked as a ride-share driver.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the Boulder Police Department reported that eight people were injured in the Sunday attack. The four men and four women, whose ages ranged from 52 to 88, were all transported to area hospitals, with two being transported via helicopter to Denver in more serious condition. By Monday, law enforcement said four additional victims came forward with minor injuries from the attack, increasing the total number of victims to 12.
KUSA, a local NBC affiliate, reports that one of the victims is a Holocaust survivor. Chany Scheiner, a friend of the victim, described her as an “amazing person.”
“She speaks — she has spoken at our synagogues as well as other synagogues and schools just about her background and the Holocaust and from her own perspective,” Scheiner told KUSA. “She is passionate about standing up for good things, and she is an extremely exceptional person. Always a smile on her face. Her life wasn’t easy, but she is just a bright light. And anybody who is her friend is a friend for life.”
Boulder mayor Aaron Brockett said he was “saddened and outraged” at the attack that occurred Sunday, calling the incident “appalling.”
“As the mayor of the city of Boulder, I want to be clear that violence and hatred have no place here. Attacks like these seek to strike terror in people’s hearts and divide us from one another, but Boulder will stand strong together,” he said.
On Monday, President Donald Trump laid blame for the attack on his predecessor, citing former president Joe Biden’s immigration policy. “He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under ‘TRUMP’ Policy. Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish politician, condemned the attack in a statement on Sunday. “Tonight, a peaceful demonstration was targeted in a vile, antisemitic act of terror. Once again, Jews are left reeling from repeated acts of violence and terror,” he said. “When antisemitism is allowed to fester, when it spreads unchecked, and when too many look the other way, history has shown us where it leads: to hatred, to violence, to terror.”
In a statement, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he and his wife are praying for the victims of the “vicious terror attack” in Boulder. “This attack was aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews,” he said. “I trust the American authorities will prosecute the cold-blooded perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law and will do everything possible to prevent future attacks against innocent civilians.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also attributed the Boulder attack to the Biden administration’s handling of immigration. “Border security is national security. This act of terror could have been prevented, but Biden made a mockery of our national security and America is paying the price for his failures,” he said on social media.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a known immigration hard-liner, similarly echoed Trump’s sentiments, writing on social media, “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. Suicidal migration must be fully reversed.”
