FBI says 8 hurt in Colorado attack by man with makeshift flamethrower who yelled ‘Free Palestine’

BOULDER, Colo. — A man with a makeshift flamethrower yelled “Free Palestine” and hurled an incendiary device into a group that had assembled to raise attention for Israeli hostages in Gaza, law enforcement officials said Sunday. Eight people were injured, some with burns.

The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was booked into the Boulder County jail north of Denver and expected to face charges in connection with the attack, which the FBI was investigating as a terrorist act. Online records did not immediately show when he would make a court appearance.

The burst of violence at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, a four-block area in downtown Boulder, unfolded against the backdrop of a war between Israel and Hamas that continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. 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 man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass on Sunday decried the “especially brutal targeting of elders” as an “atrocious affront to the very fabric of our society and our beliefs here in Los Angeles.”

Bass, in a post on X, said she would call for an emergency meeting at City Hall “regarding safety and security here in Los Angeles immediately after Shavuot.” The Jewish holiday began Sunday evening and continues through Tuesday. The mayor said there would be additional L.A. Police Department patrols “at houses of worship and community centers” in Los Angeles.

In New York, police officials also said they would increase police presence at religious sites throughout the city for Shavuot.

“Sadly, attacks like this are becoming too common across the country,” said Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver field office, which encompasses Boulder. “This is an example of how perpetrators of violence continue to threaten communities across the nation.”

The wounded ranged in age from 67 to 88, and the injuries spanned from serious to minor, officials said.

The attack occurred as people with a volunteer group called Run for Their Lives was concluding their weekly demonstration to raise visibility for the hostages who remain in Gaza. 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 and 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 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 asking for water to help.

After the initial attack, Osante said, the suspect went behind bushes and reemerged to throw a Molotov cocktail. The man, who apparently set himself on fire as well, took off his shirt and what appeared to be a ballistic vest before police arrived. He dropped to the ground and was arrested without any apparent resistance in the video that Osante filmed.

As people tried to help the woman on the ground, another woman who appeared to be a participant in the event yelled to others out of the camera’s view, defending their cause, saying they don’t talk about the government but just talk about the hostages.

Lynn Segal, 72, was among about 20 people who gathered Sunday. They had finished their march in front of the courthouse when a “rope of fire” shot in front of her and then “two big flares.”

She said the scene quickly turned chaotic as people worked to find water to put out flames and find help.

Segal, who said she is Jewish on her father’s side and has supported Palestine for more than 40 years, was concerned that she might be accused of helping the suspect because she was wearing a pro-Palestine shirt.

“There were people who were burning, I wanted to help,” she said. “But I didn’t want to be associated with the perpetrator.”

Authorities did not disclose details about Soliman but said they believed that he acted alone and that no other suspect was being sought. No criminal charges were immediately announced, but officials said they would move to hold Soliman accountable. He was also injured and was taken to a hospital to be treated, but authorities didn’t elaborate on the nature of his injuries.

FBI leaders immediately declared the attack an act of terrorism, and the Justice Department denounced it as a “needless act of violence, which follows recent attacks against Jewish Americans.”

“This act of terror is being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence based on the early information, the evidence, and witness accounts. We will speak clearly on these incidents when the facts warrant it,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a post on X.

Israel’s war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. They are still holding 58 hostages, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 people in Hamas-run Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas, displaced around 90% of the population and left people almost completely reliant on international aid.

The violence comes four years after a shooting rampage at a grocery store in Boulder, about 25 miles northwest of Denver, that killed 10 people. The gunman was sentenced to life in prison for murder after a jury rejected his attempt to avoid prison time by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.

Multiple blocks of the pedestrian mall area were evacuated by police. The scene shortly after the attack was tense, as law enforcement agents with a police dog walked through the streets looking for threats and instructed the public to stay clear of the pedestrian mall.

Slevin and Tucker write for the Associated Press.