The suspect in an attack on a pro-Israel rally in Colorado, which injured eight people, was being held on Monday on multiple charges, including assault and the use of explosives, with bail set at $10 million, according to official records.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, also faces charges of first-degree murder, although police have stated that no fatalities occurred in the Sunday attack in Boulder. Authorities have yet to clarify the discrepancy.
Details about Soliman remain scarce, but Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said Soliman had overstayed his visa and possessed an expired work permit.
“There are millions of individuals like this that we are attempting to locate from the past administration that weren’t properly screened that were allowed in,” Lyons said at a press conference in Boston. “I will tell you that’s a huge effort for ICE right now.”
Under former President Joe Biden, ICE prioritized the arrest of serious criminals and emphasized considering humanitarian factors during arrests.
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The attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents targeting Jewish Americans amid rising tensions over Israel’s military actions in Gaza. It follows the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy aides outside Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum last month.
Lyons declined to provide further details, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously stated that Soliman entered the country in August 2022 and applied for asylum the following month. “The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country,” the spokesperson said.
Soliman is scheduled for a court hearing at 1:30 p.m. U.S. Mountain Time (1930 GMT). Boulder Police said they would hold a press conference later on Monday to discuss the attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post that such attacks would not be tolerated. “This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland,” he said.
Witnesses reported that the suspect used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd, yelling “Free Palestine,” according to the FBI, which is investigating the incident as a “targeted terror attack.”
Four women and four men, aged between 52 and 88, were hospitalized after the attack, Boulder Police said.
The incident occurred on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping area near the University of Colorado, during an event organized by Run for Their Lives, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the hostages seized following Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel.
Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told CBS Colorado that the 88-year-old victim was a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe.
The FBI raided and searched Soliman’s home in El Paso County, Colorado, the agency said. “As this is an ongoing investigation, no additional information is available at this time.”
The Denver office of the FBI, which is handling the case, did not immediately respond to requests for clarification on the homicide charges or other details in the case.
Officials from the Boulder County Jail, Boulder Police, and Boulder County Sheriff’s Office also did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Sunday’s attack is not the first instance of mass violence in Boulder. In 2021, a gunman killed 10 people, including an off-duty police officer, at a local supermarket.
