FBI identifies Mohamad Soliman, an alleged illegal immigrant from Egypt, as suspect in Boulder attack
An assailant who threw molotov cocktails at a Boulder, Colorado, group raising awareness for Hamas’s hostages on Sunday shouted, “We have to end Zionists,” and yelled unintelligible remarks about Palestine. The assailant, whom authorities identified as 45-year-old Mohamad Soliman, wounded six victims between the ages of 67 and 88, leaving one in critical condition.
Soliman is an Egyptian immigrant in the country illegally after overstaying his visa during the Biden administration, Fox News reported. The suspect reportedly was given a temporary work authorization by the Biden administration.
“Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd,” an FBI spokesman said at a press conference Sunday evening, adding that Soliman was heard yelling: “free Palestine!”
The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.
There it is. The alleged suspect after the attack where he threw Molotov cocktails at people saying “this will end when Palestine is free and for us” https://t.co/TbXWmYIlcf pic.twitter.com/nIg71dDDoa
— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 1, 2025
“How many children? How many children you killed?” the shirtless assailant shouted while holding two bottles filled with liquid. “We have to end Zionists.”
The pro-Israel group, Run For Their Lives, has gathered for a peaceful walk each Sunday in a quaint neighborhood to raise awareness for the Israeli hostages Hamas seized during the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack. Run For Their Lives’s organizer, Miri Kornfeld, told a local NBC affiliate that the assailant was waiting for them to arrive before throwing the bottles, burning five, including one woman who had to roll on the ground to put the fire out.
FBI director Kash Patel described the incident as a “targeted terror attack.”
Videos posted to X show flames burning at the scene, with nearby witnesses trying to help victims.
The FBI and local law enforcement report that they are responding to a possible terror attack targeting Israeli supporters in Boulder, Colorado. Bystanders report that some kind of “incendiary device” was thrown at the group by a unidentified male, setting several of them on fire… pic.twitter.com/ta71ud8VCr
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 1, 2025
The Wall Street Journal noted that police “have yet to determine a motive” and didn’t note why the group gathered until later in the story. The New York Times also said “federal and local police offered contradictory indications about the underlying motivations” and pointed to Boulder police saying it was too early to call it a terror attack.
One witness posted to X that one “elderly woman was so severely burned that her hair was charred and she wasn’t moving while others cared for her. Others were sitting/lying down in shock, some with their pants burned off, skin melted up their legs with their skin even split open and bleeding in some areas.”
He added that the group poured water from a nearby fountain on the victims. He posted images to X showing soaked concrete surrounding them.
The attack comes just over a week after two Israeli embassy workers were shot and killed at point-blank range. The accused killer, Elias Rodriguez, shouted “free, free Palestine” during his arrest, and is tied to a range of far-left groups, including anti-Israel organizations.