Local Law Enforcement Issue Statement Following Attack In Colorado

By
Gregory McMullen
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On a quiet Sunday afternoon, as residents of Boulder, Colorado gathered for a peaceful walk in solidarity with Israeli hostages, an Egyptian national—Mohamed Sabry Soliman—allegedly unleashed terror using a makeshift flamethrower and incendiary devices, injuring six elderly victims, aged 67 to 88. According to multiple eyewitness accounts and video footage, the suspect shouted “Free Palestine” and “End Zionists” as he set people ablaze, creating chaos in the heart of the Park Street Mall.


The FBI has officially labeled the incident an act of terrorism, with Special Agent Mark Michalek confirming that Soliman is being investigated for a targeted ideological attack.

The victims were participating in a weekly event led by Run for Their Lives, a grassroots group that walks silently every week to raise awareness for Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The event has always been peaceful, non-partisan, and deeply symbolic—until now.

“Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd,” said Michalek. “This is a targeted act of violence… We are investigating this as an act of terrorism.”

Videos circulating online show a shirtless man with squirt bottles, reportedly Soliman, yelling political slogans amid the smoke and panic. CPR News and KDVR interviewed eyewitnesses who described seeing victims on fire, with one woman reportedly “burning on the ground.”

The attacker’s immigration history reveals a glaring failure of federal oversight:

  • August 27, 2022: Soliman enters the U.S. via LAX on a B1/B2 nonimmigrant visa.
  • February 26, 2023: His visa expires—he never leaves.
  • September 29, 2022: Files a claim with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), likely for asylum.
  • March 29, 2023: Despite overstaying, he is granted work authorization by USCIS under the Biden administration, valid until March 28, 2025.

That’s nearly two years of illegal presence—with work authorization granted by a system clearly unable or unwilling to flag those who overstay and disappear into the country.

This should not have happened. Soliman was not just an illegal overstay—he was also granted federal approval to live and work, while harboring the very ideology that led to Sunday’s firebomb attack on elderly Jewish Americans.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis swiftly condemned the attack:

“This heinous and targeted act on the Jewish community… is unfathomable.”

He added that the attack took place on the eve of Shavuot, a sacred Jewish holiday, amplifying the emotional toll. Polis confirmed that his administration is working with local and federal authorities and vowed that the suspect would be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Federal officials have also rallied around the designation of this act as terrorism, a rare but important moment of clarity in a media landscape often slow to label ideologically motivated violence—especially when committed by foreign nationals inspired by extremist anti-Israel rhetoric.


This attack is not happening in a vacuum. It follows closely on the heels of the deadly antisemitic shooting of Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and amid a rising wave of violent rhetoric targeting Jews under the cover of “Free Palestine” messaging.

But what makes this moment particularly damning is that the system that should have prevented this attack actively enabled it:

  • Soliman was known to federal immigration services.
  • He had overstayed his visa for more than two years.
  • He had been given legal work authorization by DHS.

In short, this was a preventable act of terror, made possible by systemic failure—and bureaucratic indifference.

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