By Katrina Tsui, John Miller, Chris Boyette, CNN
(CNN) — Editor’s note: Find the latest coverage of the Boulder attack here.
A man yelled “free Palestine” as he used incendiary devices – including a “makeshift flamethrower” – to set people on fire during a Jewish community event in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday, in what authorities are calling another “targeted” antisemitic attack.
Witnesses described seeing huge flames and people pouring buckets of water onto burning victims. At least eight were injured, including four women and four men between the ages of 52 and 88, authorities said. Two victims were airlifted to the Denver metro area. At least one victim was “very seriously injured,” officials said.
No victims have died, the Boulder Police Department said Monday morning.
The FBI is investigating the attack as “an act of terrorism,” the agency said. It happened at a weekly walk held in Boulder in support of the Israeli hostages who remain held by Hamas in Gaza. Among the eight injured is a Holocaust survivor, according to an individual who knows the person and who was at the event. It is unclear what their condition is.
A news conference is expected Monday, the police department said.
The suspect has been identified as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, according to the FBI. In videos obtained by CNN, the suspect is seen shirtless, yelling “Palestine is free!” “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” The suspect is carrying two bottles, and witnesses can be heard saying he’s “spraying alcohol” and “he’s making Molotov cocktails.”
Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails, and police found 16 more in the area of the attack, multiple law enforcement sources said. He arrived in the area around 1 p.m. wearing a utility vest over his shirt and carrying a garden sprayer filled with gasoline. Many witnesses said he looked like a gardener, officials said.
Soliman was booked into the Boulder County jail just before midnight Sunday on multiple felony charges, including one count of explosives or incendiary devices used during a felony, according to online jail records.
The records also show Soliman was booked on two counts of murder in the 1st degree, but the circumstances around those charges are unclear, as authorities have not announced any deaths resulting from the attack.
CNN reached out to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
Soliman has a court date scheduled for Monday at 1:30 p.m. local time, according to the online jail records, which show he is being held on a bond of $10 million.
Officials are working to assess whether the alleged attacker has any possible mental health issues, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN. The FBI was also conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity” in El Paso County, a little over 100 miles from Boulder, where the suspect is believed to live.
Sunday’s attack comes less than two weeks after two young Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot in Washington, DC, by a man who claimed to have been acting “for Gaza.”
“The Jewish community has been warning the world that chants of ‘globalize the Intifada’ and ‘resistance by any means necessary’ are calls to violence. We’ve now seen that violence erupt in America twice in less than two weeks,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said on social media.
Here’s what else we know about the Boulder attack.
A weekly gathering to support Israeli hostages descends into chaos
Sunday’s attack took place on the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, where a weekly ‘Run for Their Lives’ event was being held. The event, which has taken place consistently since mid-October 2023, aims to raise awareness for Israeli hostages being held captive by Hamas.
“This global grass roots organization was founded on October 15, 2023, a week after the horrendous terrorist attack by Hamas … These walks have been held every week since then for all the hostages – without any violent incidents until today,” the organization said in a statement.
Brian Horowitz told CNN he and his family were dining at a food hall near the scene of the attack when a woman ran toward them saying that a man was “throwing fire” at people.
Horowitz got up and ran into the courtyard, where he saw a man carrying a tank on his back that resembled a gardening chemical sprayer. Videos obtained by CNN show witnesses to the attack saying Soliman was “making Molotov cocktails.”
“I saw fabric coming out of it, and I quickly realized that it was a Molotov cocktail. One had already exploded right in front of us,” Horowitz said.
He noted that another man was trying to talk the suspect down, but the suspect kept yelling, “f**k you, Zionist,” “you all deserve to die,” and “you’ve killed these children.”
After calling 911, Horowitz went to see if he could assist any victims. He described seeing an elderly woman lying on the ground, unresponsive.
“There were several people attending to her and wrapping her up, trying to ensure she was OK,” he said. People from a restaurant across the street were bringing large buckets of ice water to help extinguish the flames, he added.
He grabbed a bucket and filled it with water from a fountain in the middle of the courtyard, he said. “I just kept filling that up and pouring it on their legs.”
“Their pants were completely burned and singed off. It looked like their skin had just melted off their bodies.”
Many of the victims are well known in the community, said Elyana Funk, executive director of the University of Boulder Hillel. She talked to a couple of them last night, including one woman who is “healing from horrible burns.”
“She really felt like this happened not just to her, but to the whole community,” Funk said. A mother and daughter were also injured in the attack, she said.
The mother “is a Holocaust survivor in her 80s, who’s been through certainly enough trauma,” she added. “This wasn’t a pro-Israel rally or some sort of political statement on the war,” she said. “These are peaceful people who’ve been walking for nearly 20 months weekly to bring awareness for the hostages.”
Evacuation orders in downtown Boulder were lifted Monday morning. Boulder County government office buildings on Pearl Street and 13th Street remained closed.
Suspect not a US national, overstayed tourist visa
The suspect pinned to the ground and arrested near the scene of the attack was identified as Soliman, FBI Denver Special Agent-in-Charge Mark D. Michalek said Sunday night.
Videos obtained by CNN capture Soliman, shirtless, faced down on a patch of grass near an area with obvious burn marks. Around him, black clouds of smoke billowed in the air.
Witnesses said that Soliman took off his vest and shirt because they had started to catch fire during the attack, according to police. He was taken to an area hospital after his arrest for treatment of burns he sustained to his hands during the attack.
“After committing the attack, the suspect told police “I did it to avenge my people,” one of the law enforcement officials said.”
While senior FBI officials have deemed the incident an act of terrorism, authorities are working to determine whether Soliman may have been suffering from mental illness, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.
Soliman arrived in the United States in August 2022 as a non-immigrant visitor, according to multiple law enforcement officials.
He filed a claim a month later, in September, and was granted a work authorization in March 2023. The authorization expired at the end of March of this year, at which point it appears he remained here illegally, the officials added.
Law enforcement sources previously told CNN the suspect had applied for asylum and been rejected for a visa in 2005. It’s unclear how and when the suspect entered the US.
‘Makeshift flamethrower’ likely did not require complex materials, source says
FBI agents and federal prosecutors are still reviewing the circumstances of the incident to determine whether Soliman will be charged with terrorism or under other possible federal criminal statutes, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.
The FBI has recently investigated foreign-inspired extremists who might use high-powered weapons, explosives, or vehicles to cause mass casualty incidents in the US, but Soliman’s use of Molotov cocktails, which can be constructed from materials easily obtained, do not appear to fit the profile of a terrorist intent on causing large-scale causalities, the source said.
Soliman used a garden sprayer as a “makeshift flamethrower,” apparently by spraying gasoline in the direction of the marchers while holding a lighter in front of it, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
The device likely did not require him to buy complex materials that would have put him on law enforcement’s radar, former FBI agent Bobby Chacon told CNN.
Molotov cocktails and similar improvised incendiary devices are unfortunately “easily assembled” but can result in some of the most severe injuries, said Chacon.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post that “we are aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado. Our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available.”
The attack in Boulder is “being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on social media Sunday.
“Our leadership team on the ground in Boulder will be updating you shortly on the attack in Boulder,” Bongino wrote in a post on X.
Jewish leaders on high alert after second antisemitic attack in two weeks
“Today, six people were set on fire by a terrorist in Boulder, Colorado. Why? Because they were calling for 58 hostages still held by Hamas terrorists to finally be returned home,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said on social media.
The Boulder attack was part of a “wave of domestic terror attacks aimed at the Jewish community,” said Eric D. Fingerhut, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America. Fingerhut outlined a six-point plan for the federal government to address the growing threat.
His proposals included increasing a nonprofit security grant program funding to $1 billion to meet urgent needs, dedicating resources for security personnel at Jewish institutions, bolstering FBI intelligence capabilities to thwart domestic terrorism and holding social media platforms accountable for spreading antisemitic hate and incitement, among others.
In response to Sunday’s attack, authorities in major cities across the US have deployed extra security at Jewish sites and community centers.
On Sunday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced in a statement an emergency meeting will be held in City Hall to address heightened security ahead of the Jewish holiday Shavuot. Mayor Bass also said the Los Angeles Police Department would be conducting “extra patrols at houses of worship and community centers” throughout the city.
“Antisemitism will not be tolerated,” she said.
On the East Coast, the New York Police Department said its presence has increased at synagogues and other religious sites across the city for Shavuot.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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CNN’s Amanda Musa, Josh Campbell, Hanna Park, Matt Rehbein and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report
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