Investigators have now located fifteen people and one dog who were injured in the attack, the 20th Judicial District Attorney's Office announced on Wednesday, June 4. Their ages range from 25 to 88 years old; eight of the victims are female and seven are male.
The suspect in the attack, Mohammed Sabry Soliman, allegedly threw two homemade Molotov cocktails at a group of demonstrators on June 1 during their weekly walk on Pearl Street, advocating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Soliman reportedly yelled "Free Palestine!" during the ambush and later told police that he wanted to kill them as "revenge" against Israelis for the Israeli-Palestinian war, according to arrest affidavits.
Two of the victims were still in the hospital as of Tuesday receiving treatment for serious burns. The oldest victim has been identified as 88-year-old Barbara Steinmetz, who survived the Holocaust.
Soliman is scheduled to receive formal charges in court on Thursday afternoon. During a press conference on Monday, law enforcement officials said they plan to bring forward sixteen counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of use of an incendiary device, and sixteen counts of attempted use of an incendiary device. The charges may change with the identification of additional victims.
Mohammed Sabry Soliman, 45 of Colorado Springs, is being held on a $10 million bond for the attack in Boulder.
Boulder Police Department
If convicted of those state charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 624 years. He also faces a life sentence for a federal hate crime charge coming from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Soliman is currently being held in the Boulder County Jail on a $10 million bond.
“We continue to work closely with our federal, state, and local partners in strong response to this horrific attack," District Attorney Michael Dougherty says in a statement. "We are united in our commitment to pursuing justice for all the victims, their many loved ones, and this community. We stand with the Jewish community and the people of Colorado against hate and terror.”
Soliman is a 45-year-old Uber driver who lives in Colorado Springs. He is from Egypt but lived in Kuwait for years before coming to the United States in late 2022 on a tourist visa. He later requested asylum and remained in the country after his visa expired in February 2023. Soliman's wife and five children were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced. The White House has threatened to deport the family, though there has been no official confirmation of deportation as of Wednesday.
In interviews with police, Soliman reportedly admitted to planning the attack for over a year, waiting until his daughter graduated from high school before carrying it out. He searched for local Zionist groups online and found the weekly Run for Their Lives event held in Boulder, the affidavits say.
Soliman allegedly prepared eighteen Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed-sprayer filled with gasoline to attack the peaceful group. He carried flowers and wore an orange vest to appear as a gardener as he approached, before hurling two flaming bottles at the victims.
"Mohamed said he wanted them to all die and that was the plan," the Boulder Police Department's affidavit reads. "He said he would go back and do it again and had no regret doing what he did."
Soliman reportedly claimed to have sprayed gasoline on himself "because he had planned on dying." He told police he only threw two of the eighteen Molotov cocktails because "he got scared and had never hurt anyone before."
