Colorado terror suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly plotted to attack a Jewish group as far back as last year, but paused his plan until his daughter graduated from high school.
Soliman, 45, is accused of injuring eight people by attacking a Jewish community event on Sunday afternoon in Boulder, Colorado, burning his victims, aged 52 to 88, with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails. Two victims had to be airlifted to hospitals.
The father-of-five, who is an Egyptian national, was slapped with a federal hate crime charge on Monday morning. In an interview with the FBI, he allegedly admitted to the attack and said he would do it all again if he could.
Soliman also told investigators that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Beast.
He added that he targeted Sunday’s “Run For Their Lives” event, which called for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, because they are a “Zionist group” that he found through an online search.
“Throughout the interview, Soliman stated that he hated the Zionist group and did this because he hated this group and needed to stop them from taking over ‘our land,’ which he explained to be Palestine,” the complaint said.
His daughter’s graduation is the only thing that kept him from acting sooner, the complaint alleged.
There is no public information about Soliman’s family. The right-wing influencer Laura Loomer claimed in a viral post on X that Soliman’s daughter plans to attend college in Colorado in the fall. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions from the Daily Beast about Soliman’s wife and children, but wrote in an emailed statement that Soliman “is illegally in our country.”
The Soliman family lived in Colorado Springs, about 100 miles south of where Sunday’s attack took place. His neighbors told the local news station KKTV that he worked as an Uber driver and was often out of town.
KKTV also reported that the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office received three non-criminal calls for service to Soliman’s apartment since 2022, including two 911 hang-ups and another described only as “juvenile contact.” Soliman was reportedly involved in four traffic stops in that same period.
Soliman’s complaint stated that he had left notes for his family on an iPhone that he had hidden in a drawer at their home. That device has been turned over to local cops by his wife.
The White House has characterized Soliman as an illegal migrant who exploited the immigration system when he entered the U.S. in 2022, laying blame for his presence in the country—and his eventual “antisemitic attack”—on the Biden administration.
Soliman entered the U.S. on a tourist visa that expired in Feb. 2023. He filed for asylum in Sept. 2022, which granted him a temporary work permit that expired in March. DHS did not answer questions about the status of Soliman’s asylum case.
Soliman was booked into the county jail on Sunday night on multiple felony counts, including first-degree murder, despite no victims dying. Boulder police released a mugshot on Monday that showed his right ear was bandaged, his face was burned, and he had a bloodied nose. Part of his white shirt was also stained a yellowish color.
Clips from the attack showed Soliman shirtless and saying, “How many children killed,” possibly referring to civilian casualties in Gaza amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The complaint alleges he was also heard saying, “end Zionist.”
Soliman’s 2015 silver Toyota Prius was found near the scene and impounded, according to his federal complaint. Allegedly inside the vehicle were papers with the words “Israel,” “Palestine,” and “USAID” on them.
Federal prosecutors tacked on a hate crime charge for Soliman after his interview with investigators. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison, with the potential for a life sentence.
