Brad Brooks and Joseph Ax
(Reuters) – The family of Egyptian nationals has been accused of throwing gasoline bombs at a pro-Israeli rally in Colorado, officials said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media video post that Ice has detained Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s family, who lives in Colorado Springs, and federal officials say it’s illegal, and he goes beyond tourist visas and expired work permits.
Nome said that while Soriman will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, federal agents also “investigate the extent of his family’s terrible attacks — if they have any knowledge of it, or if they have any support for it.”
The ICE did not immediately respond to requests for further details on detention of Soliman’s family.
According to local media reports, Soriman’s family includes two teenagers and three young children. The FBI and police officials said Monday that the family worked with investigators. The suspect told investigators that he was acting alone.
Department of Homeland Security officials said Soliman entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in August 2022, applied for asylum the following month, and stayed in the country after his visa expired in February 2023.
The attack in Boulder, Colorado, Sunday injured more than a dozen people, many of whom were older. The attack was targeted at participating in a run event, a group committed to drawing attention to the hostages Hamas caught in the 2023 attack on Israel.
Soliman, 45, told investigators that he wanted to “kill all Zionists” but delayed the attack until his daughter graduated from high school until after his daughter graduated.
Police and FBI affidavits quoted the suspect as saying he was trained in guns to obtain a hidden carry permit, but ended up using a Molotov cocktail because his non-citizenship prevented him from buying the gun. Soriman told investigators he learned how to build fire bombs from YouTube.
A police affidavit was to support Soriman’s arrest warrant, who said he was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years and moved to Colorado Springs about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of Boulder three years ago, where he lived with his wife and five children.
Federal and local authorities said at a Monday press conference in Boulder that Soriman did not take any action before Sunday’s attacks to attract the attention of law enforcement. They said he was believed to have acted alone.
The affidavit said the suspects “spent two lit Molotov cocktails at individuals attending the pro-Israel gatherings, “yelling “Free Palestine” as they were ignited in the crowd.
The attack is the latest violence against Jewish Americans, linked to anger at the escalating Israeli military offensive in Gaza. This is a fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy aides outside the Jewish Museum in the capital of Washington last month.
(Report by Brad Brooks, Kansas, Joseph Ax and Bhargav Acharya of New Jersey; Editor of Rod Nickel)
