Suspect in Boulder flamethrower attack told Colorado police he targeted ‘Zionist group’ – US politics live

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Authorities said on Sunday they believed Soliman acted alone and that no other suspect was being sought, AP reported.

He was also injured and was taken to hospital to be treated. Authorities did not give details of his injuries, but a booking photo showed him with a large bandage over one ear.

Soliman was living in the US illegally after entering the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

She added that Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorisation in March 2023 that had expired.

Public records listed him as living in a modest rented townhouse in Colorado Springs, where local media outlets reported federal law enforcement agents were on the scene on Sunday.

An online resume under Soliman’s name said he was employed by a Denver-area health care company working in accounting and inventory control, with previous employers listed as companies in Egypt.

Under education, the resume listed Al-Azhar University, a historic centre for Islamic and Arabic learning in Cairo.

Video from the scene shows a witness shouting, “He’s right there. He’s throwing molotov cocktails”, as a police officer with his gun drawn advances on a bare-chested suspect holding containers in each hand.

Alex Osante, of San Diego, said he was having lunch when he heard the crash of a bottle breaking on the ground and a “boom” sound followed by people yelling and screaming.

In video of the scene captured by Osante, people can be seen pouring water on a woman lying on the ground who Osante said had caught fire during the attack.

After the initial attack, Osante said the suspect went behind some bushes and then re-emerged and threw a petrol bomb, but apparently accidentally caught himself on fire as he threw it.

The man then took off his shirt and what appeared to be a bulletproof vest before the police arrived. The man dropped to the ground and was arrested without any apparent resistance in the video filmed by Osante.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Monday saying he, his wife and the nation of Israel were praying for the full recovery of the people wounded in the “vicious terror attack” in Colorado.

“Sadly, attacks like this are becoming too common across the country,” said Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver field office.

In New York, the police department said it had upped its presence at religious sites throughout the city for Shavuot.

The eight victims who were wounded were aged between 52 and 88 and the injuries ranged from serious to minor, officials said.

The attack occurred as people with a volunteer group called Run For Their Lives was concluding a weekly demonstration to raise visibility for the hostages who remain in Gaza.

Suspect in Colorado flamethrower attack told police he targeted 'Zionist group'

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with the news that a man accused of using a makeshift flame-thrower and an incendiary device to attack a US group bringing attention to Israeli hostages in Gaza has been charged with a federal hate crime.

Mohammed Sabry Soliman, 45, told police he had planned it for a year and targeted what he described as the “Zionist group”, the FBI said.

CNN reviewed a Facebook account matching his name and date of birth. It reported:

On the account’s page, which was last updated about 10 years ago, Soliman said he attended high school and college in Egypt and later moved to Kuwait, where he had an accounting job, according to the page. That account featured photos of Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who served as Egypt’s president from 2012 to 2013, when he was ousted in a military coup that triggered mass protests and sit-ins in Cairo.

Posts on the Facebook page expressed support for the Muslim Brotherhood protests against the removal of Morsi. One post from August 2013 featured a four-finger salute with a yellow background, a symbol supportive of the Rabaa al-Adawiya Square encampment, which was violently dispersed by Egyptian security forces loyal to Egypt’s then-defense minister and current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Twelve people were injured in the attack in Colorado, some with burns, as a group was concluding a weekly demonstration to raise visibility for the hostages who remain in Gaza, AP reported. Witnesses reported the man shouted “Free Palestine” during the attack.

An FBI affidavit says Soliman confessed to the attack after being taken into custody on Sunday and told the police he would do it again. The affidavit was released in support of a federal hate crime charged filed by the Justice Department on Monday.

The attack happened on the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is marked with the reading of the Torah, and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy employees outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

Federal and state prosecutors filed separate criminal cases against Soliman, charging him with a hate crime and attempted murder, respectively. He faces additional state charges related to the incendiary devices, and more charges are possible in federal court, where the Justice Department will seek a grand jury indictment.

During a state court hearing on Monday, Soliman appeared briefly via a video link from the Boulder County Jail wearing an orange jumpsuit.

In other news:

• The head of Ice defended his agency’s decision to arrest an 18-year-old Massachusetts high school student on his way to volleyball practice. US district judge Richard Stearns later ordered a 72-hour stay to “provide a fair opportunity for the judge who will be randomly assigned to this case” to review merits and rule on any contested issues in the case of Marcelo Gomes Da Silva.

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) barred its 2025 class president from attending her graduation ceremony on Friday after she delivered a speech during a commencement event the day before condemning Israel’s war in Gaza and criticizing the university’s ties to Israel.

• China accused the US of “seriously violating” and undermining the agreements reached in Geneva in May.

• Prosecutors in Milwaukee charged a man on Monday with four felonies for attempting to frame an undocumented immigrant he is accused of assaulting, by sending forged letters in the immigrant’s name with a threat to kill Donald Trump.

• New York’s lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, announced on Monday that he is running for governor, setting up a Democratic primary battle against the sitting governor, Kathy Hochul, who selected him for the job as her deputy.

• Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s senior Democrat, released a social media video on Monday in which he seemed to taunt Donald Trump for supposedly being too “chicken” in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.