An attack in Boulder, Colorado, near a rally calling for the release of Hamas-held hostages in Gaza left multiple people with burns on Sunday in an attack that the FBI is investigating as terrorism, officials said.
A suspect was taken into custody after witnesses reported that a man with “a makeshift flame thrower” yelling “‘free Palestine’ threw an incendiary device into the crowd” during the attack, FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said at a Sunday evening briefing.
- Eight people were taken to Denver-area hospitals, per an emailed FBI statement late Thursday local time that didn’t provide an update on conditions. Officials originally said six were hospitalized, with at least one patient in critical condition.
- The suspect has been identified as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, of El Paso County, Colo.
Run For Their Lives, which organized the walk in support of the hostages, said in a statement the group met at 1pm local time to walk the length of the Pearl Street Mall and back when the incident happened.
- “This is not a protest; it is a peaceful walk to show solidarity with the hostages and their families, and a plea for their release,” the group said.
- Authorities were called to the incident at 13th and Pearl streets at 1:26pm MT after receiving reports that individuals had been “set on fire,” Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said at a Sunday afternoon briefing.
- The FBI said in its statement that four women and four men, ages 52 to 88, were hospitalized after the attack.
- President Trump has been briefed on the situation, a White House official told Axios.
Zoom in: FBI chief Kash Patel on X called the incident a “targeted terror attack,” though Redfearn said at a Sunday afternoon briefing that police were not treating the incident as terrorism during the early stages of the investigation and it was too early to speculate on a motive.
- Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in an emailed statement that from “what we know, this attack appears to be a hate crime given the group that was targeted.”
- Michalek said at the Sunday evening briefing alongside Redfearn that as a result of preliminary facts, “it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard wrote on X that the Office of the DNI’s National Counterterrorism Center was “working with the FBI and local law enforcement on the ground investigating the targeted terror attack against a weekly meeting of Jewish community members.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X the DHS was monitoring the situation and working with interagency partners, including the FBI.
- The suspect had “illegally overstayed” a tourist visa, Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller wrote on X.
- Colorado Gov. Jared Polis noted in a statement on X that the U.S. Jewish community was already reeling from the fatal shootings of two Israeli Embassy staff in D.C. last month.
- It “is unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack here in Boulder, on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot no less,” the governor said.
- Boulder’s Jewish Community Center in a statement said they’re “heartbroken to learn that an incendiary device was thrown at walkers at the Run for Their Lives walk on Pearl Street as they were raising awareness for the hostages still held in Gaza.”
- Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, in a statement on the incident said: “Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border — it is already burning the streets” of the U.S.
- “Today, in Boulder, Colorado, Jewish people marched with a moral and humane demand: to return the hostages. In response, the Jewish protesters were brutally attacked,” he added.
- “Make no mistake — this is not a political protest, this is terrorism. The time for statements is over. It is time for concrete action to be taken against the instigators.”
- Axios