The terrorist who attacked peaceful pro-Israel protestors with a makeshift flamethrower in Colorado on Sunday has been identified as an ‘illegal alien’.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, allegedly injured eight people aged between 52 and 88 – setting at least one ablaze – at a demonstration honoring the October 7 victims who are still being held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza.
Boulder Police said the horror unfolded during an event organized by Run For Their Lives on Pearl Street Mall in the city’s downtown just before 1.30pm local time on Sunday, the first day of a Jewish holiday called Shavuot.
FBI Director Kash Patel called the incident a ‘terror attack’ while Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said it ‘appears to be a hate crime given the group that was targeted’.
Shocking footage from the scene showed several victims laying motionless on the ground beside Israel flags as witnesses rushed to pour water on their wounds.
Soliman, who lives in El Paso county, Texas, appeared to taunt the victims while brandishing bottles of alcohol for the Molotov cocktails in each hand as smoke rose from the scene.
Wearing only jeans and sunglasses, he yelled: ‘End Zionists… they are terrorists’ and ‘free Palestine’. He also said: ‘How many children have you killed?’ according to the ADL Center on Extremism.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Soliman is an ‘illegal alien’ who arrived in the US on a visa issued by the Biden administration. When he illegally overstayed that visa, he was given a second chance and issued a new work permit.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman (pictured), 45, attacked demonstrators as they gathered to remember the October 7 victims who are still being held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza
Six people have been injured after a screaming shirtless man hurled Molotov cocktails at them during a peaceful pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado
Shocking video and images from the scene showed several victims laying motionless on the ground beside Israel flags as witnesses rushed to pour water on their wounds
FBI Director Kash Patel tweeted about the incident just after 5.20pm
A border official told Fox News Soliman is from Egypt, and that he first arrived in the US after landing at Los Angeles International Airport on August 27, 2022, using a non-immigrant visa.
He was authorized to stay until February 2, 2023, but he never left. He filed a claim with US Citizenship and Immigration Services on September 9, 2022, and he was granted a work permit to stay in the US until March 2025.
Disturbing footage of Soliman’s attack showed EMTs used stretchers to move people into ambulances while flames spread in patches across the ground.
Another video showed what looked like a burn scar across the ground close to the city’s old courthouse. Blackened burned-out bottles littered the scene.
Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn told a press conference that victims suffered ‘injuries consistent with burns, and other injuries’ and that wounds ranged from ‘minor’ to ‘potentially life-threatening’.
Law enforcement told NBC just before 8pm that one person was in a critical condition.
Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver field office, told another press conference later on Sunday that witnesses said Soliman used ‘a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd’.
FBI Director Kash Patel called the incident ‘a targeted terror attack’.
‘Our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available,’ Patel wrote on X.
Boulder Police said they were evacuating several blocks of the typically popular pedestrian mall area.
Chief Redfearn added that Soliman was taken into custody ‘without incident’.
Soliman, who was wearing sunglasses and jeans with no shirt when he was detained, was also taken to the hospital with ‘minor injuries’.
Chief Redfearn did not disclose the motivation behind the attack. ‘It would be irresponsible for me to speculate on motive this early on,’ he said.
Boulder Police were also initially split with the FBI on whether to call the incident a terror attack, with Redfearn saying it was too early to define the incident.
Soliman appeared to taunt the victims while brandishing bottles of alcohol for the Molotov cocktails in each hand as smoke rose from the scene
Several people have been injured in a ‘targeted terror attack’ involving Molotov cocktails in Boulder, Colorado
Pictured: Law enforcement officials investigate after an attack on the Pearl Street Mall Sunday, June 1, 2025, in downtown Boulder, Colorado
‘My thoughts are with those injured and impacted by today’s attack against a group that meets weekly on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall to call for the release of the hostages in Gaza,’ Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement.
‘From what we know, this attack appears to be a hate crime given the group that was targeted.’
‘People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences,’ he added.
‘Hate has no place in Colorado. We all have the right to peaceably assemble and the freedom to speak our views.
‘But these violent acts—which are becoming more frequent, brazen and closer to home—must stop and those who commit these horrific acts must be fully held to account.’
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino called the incident ‘an act of terror and targeted violence’.
‘All of the necessary assets will be dedicated to this investigation. If you have any investigative tips please contact the FBI. And if you aided or abetted this attack, we will find you. You cannot hide,’ he wrote on X.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement that he was ‘closely monitoring’ the situation, adding that ‘hate-filled acts of any kind are unacceptable.’
Pictured: Smoke rising from the scene of the terror attack in Boulder on Sunday afternoon
More images showed cops arresting a shirtless man at the scene, Pearl Street Mall in Boulder
Police and the FBI said the horror unfolded at Pearl Street Mall on Sunday afternoon
Demonstrators met at 1pm at Pearl Street and 8th Street in downtown Boulder to walk the length of Pearl Street Mall.
The weekly event draws attention to the 58 Israeli people who have been held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
‘This is not a protest; it is a peaceful walk to show solidarity with the hostages and their families, and a plea for their release,’ Run For Their Lives said in a statement.
Eyewitness Brooke Coffman said she saw ‘a big fire go up’ at the scene, prompting her to call 911.
Coffman told NBC she saw two women ‘rolling around a little bit’ in their underwear after having stripped out of their burning clothes with ‘really bad burns all up on their legs.’
Another woman nearby screamed as she suffered with burns on her legs. Coffman said one victim had her hair completely singed off.
California tourist Alex Osante was eating at an Italian restaurant off Boulder’s famed Pearl Street pedestrian mall when he heard a ‘big boom’ and saw a woman ‘on fire from head to toe on fire.’
Eyewitness Brooke Coffman said she saw ‘a big fire go up’ at the scene, prompting her to call 911. (Pictured: Police detaining the suspect at the scene)
Six people have been injured after a screaming shirtless man hurled Molotov cocktails at them during a peaceful pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado
‘People were screaming and yelling … tripping over each other,’ Osante told the Daily Mail.
‘The terrorist had a Molotov cocktail in his hand. He had two other bottles, and he threw a bottle at the group, and a lady caught on fire from head to toe. She was fully immersed in fire.
‘And then the other few people, maybe four others, were also on fire – but not as bad.’
Police have asked residents to avoid the stretch of Pearl Street between Walnut and Pine as they continue to investigate.
They later urged people to stop flying helicopters over the scene due to the aircraft disrupting their drone response.
The Boulder attack occurred as law enforcement authorities in the US grapple with a sharp spike in antisemitic violence.
It comes just over a week after a man was arrested over the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC on May 22.
The victims were identified as German-Israeli dual national Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim, 26.
Lischinsky had been planning to propose to Milgrim after buying a ring.
The suspect, 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, repeatedly shouted ‘Free Palestine’ after shooting them dead, as police dragged him away.
It comes just over a week after a man was arrested over the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC on May 22. The victims were identified as German-Israeli dual national Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim, 26, pictured together
Jewish human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center said the Boulder attack came on the eve of a religious holiday.
‘On the eve of Shavuot, a sacred celebration of Jewish identity and tradition, we are forced yet again to confront a horrifying reality: Being Jewish, supporting Israel, or simply gathering as a community now makes American Jews a target,’ the center’s CEO Jim Berk said.
‘This afternoon in Boulder, Colorado, a man threw a Molotov cocktail into a peaceful solidarity walk calling for the release of 58 hostages still held by Hamas, a humanitarian cause that should unite, not divide.’
He blamed the attack, as well as the murders of the Israeli embassy staffers, on ‘months of anti-Israel propaganda, moral equivocation, and silence in the face of raging antisemitism’.
‘The nonstop demonization of Israel and Zionism on our campuses, in our streets, and across digital platforms has created a climate where hate flourishes, and physical attacks—even murder—of Jews is inevitable,’ Berk said.