At least eight people were injured in what the FBI is calling a “targeted act of violence” when a man with a makeshift flamethrower yelled “Free Palestine” and threw an incendiary device into group of people on Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado.
The group was raising awareness for the 58 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza by Hamas amid the Israel-Hamas war, officials said. The victims, which range in age from 52 to 88, were taken to nearby hospitals, Boulder police said.
“It is clear that this is a targeted act of violence, and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,” Mark Michalek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver office said during a press conference Sunday evening.
According to officials, a 45-year-old suspect was taken into custody at the scene.
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 Chicago man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staffers outside of a Jewish museum in Washington.
As more details about the attack continue to unfold, here’s what we know.
Where and when did the attack happen?
The attack happened Sunday afternoon on Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder, a popular pedestrian mall with dozens of shops, restaurants and other businesses.
Michalek said the attack happened during a “regularly scheduled, peaceful event” raising awareness for hostages held by the U.S. designated terror group Hamas in Gaza. The event, run by the group Run For Their Lives — Boulder, has holding the demonstrations fairly regularly, sometimes weekly, following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the group has said.
More than 250 hostages were taken during the attack, according to Israeli officials. 58 remain in captivity, according to the American Jewish Committee, and 23 are believed to still be alive.
Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn described what dispatchers were told about Sunday’s attack during a news conference shortly after it occurred.
“There was a man with a weapon and … people were being set on fire,” he said.
Several streets nearby were closed following the attack, with police asking the public to avoid the area.
“We are still clearing those areas for devices,” Redfearn said during the press conference Sunday night.
Who are the victims?
The victims — four men and four women — range in age from 52 to 88-years-old, the FBI said. Some were transported to nearby hospitals, officials said, and two were airlifted the University of Colorado Hospital burn unit in Aurora, outside Denver.
“We stand in full solidarity with those targeted. And we will continue to ensure that justice is pursued swiftly, support is provided to victims and their communities, and preventative action is taken to protect everyone’s safety. We stand in full solidarity with those targeted,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek
Who is the suspect?
The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was booked into the Boulder County jail north of Denver. Online records did not immediately show when he would make a court appearance.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said on its daily booking sheet early that Soliman, of El Paso County, Colorado, is facing potential charges of first-degree murder — one with “extreme indifference” and one listed as “deliberation with intent — nonfamily — gun.”
Two senior law enforcement sources identified Soliman as an Egyptian national.
The officials also said they are looking into eyewitness reports as to whether or not the suspect was dressed as a worker or landscape worker to blend in.
What witnesses saw
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 who is holding containers in each hand.
Alex Osante of San Diego said he was having lunch on a restaurant patio across the pedestrian mall when he heard the crash of a bottle breaking on the ground, a “boom” sound followed by people yelling and screaming.
In video of the scene captured by Osante, people could be seen pouring water on a woman lying on the ground who Osante said had caught on fire during the attack. A man, who later identified himself as an Israeli visiting Boulder who decided to join the group that day, ran up to Osante on the video asking for some water to help.
Brooke Coffman was walking down Pearl Street on her lunch break Sunday when she saw a commotion near the courthouse. Worried someone was “getting beat up,” she approached the area.
Then, “I saw this big fire go up,” Coffman told NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver.
Coffman said she called 911 as she rushed toward the fiery scene.
She said 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, also with burns on her legs, was screaming.
Coffman could barely make out the face of one of the women, she said, choking up, adding the woman’s hair was burned off.
“It just wasn’t a good scene,” Coffman said.
Others nearby rushed to the scene with jugs of water, dousing the victims, Coffman said. She said that she saw at least seven people down, mostly older women, but that she heard there were more victims, including children.
She said she saw a shirtless man, presumably the suspect, screaming while he waved a glass bottle that contained a liquid.
Social media video of the immediate aftermath of the attack, including the police response, shows a man without a shirt holding what appears to be a clear bottle with a white top in each hand, shouting, standing away from people and shaking the bottles as he paced.
“I know it’s Boulder, it’s Pearl Street, some stuff happens … but you just don’t really think it’s going to happen right here, you don’t think it’s something you’re going to see, so many people hurt” and someone do that to other people, Coffman told KUSA in Denver.
