Suspect in Colorado flamethrower attack told police he targeted ‘Zionist group’

A man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower 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.

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.

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 burst of violence at the popular Pearl Street shopping centre, a four-block area in central Boulder, unfolded against the backdrop of a war between Israel and Hamas that continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the US.

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.

Another court hearing is set for Thursday. Soliman is being held on a 10 million dollar (£7 million) cash-only bond, prosecutors said.

Soliman’s attorney, public defender Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after the hearing.

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.

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 Mr Osante, people can be seen pouring water on a woman lying on the ground who Mr Osante said had caught fire during the attack.

After the initial attack, Mr 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 Mr Osante.

Law enforcement found more than a dozen unlit petrol bombs near where Soliman was arrested. Inside his car, officers found papers with the words “Israel”, “Palestine,” and “USAid”, the affidavit says.

Soliman told investigators he constructed homemade petrol bombs after doing research online and buying the ingredients. He drove to Boulder with the devices in his car and stopped on the way for fuel, according to the affidavit.

He said in his interview that his goal was to “kill all Zionists”, the FBI said, and that he targeted the group and knew they they would be assembled on Sunday afternoon.

“He stated that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting until after his daughter graduated to conduct the attack,” the affidavit says.

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

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.

FBI leaders immediately declared the attack an act of terrorism and the Justice Department denounced it as a “needless act of violence, which follows recent attacks against Jewish Americans”.

“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,” FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said.