Photo: Boulder Police Department
The illegal immigrant suspect who threw firebombs at Israeli hostage supporters in Boulder, Colorado praised the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist group, on social media for years prior to the incident.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, an Egyptian national, who was charged with a federal hate crime, had expressed support for the Muslim Brotherhood on his Facebook account, which was last updated a decade ago, according to CNN. The account featured several photos of the group's leader, Mohamed Morsi, who served as Egypt's first democratically elected president from 2012 to 2013 before being ousted in a military coup accusing him of seizing unlimited powers, using violence against opponents and imposing the group's conservative Islamic theories. Several of Soliman's posts backed the Muslim Brotherhood protest against his removal, including one shared in August 2013 featuring a four-finger salute, which was a symbol in support for the Rabaa protest encampment following the overthrow of Morsi, according to CNN.
Soliman entered the U.S. through Los Angeles International Airport on August 27, 2022, on a non-immigrant visa and was permitted to stay through February 26, 2023. Soliman filed a claim clearing him for work authorization by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on March 29, 2023, which expired in March 2025, meaning he was in the U.S. illegally for more than two months prior to the incident on Sunday (June 1).
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller blamed former President Joe Biden's administration for Soliman being in the U.S. illegally.
“A terror attack was committed in Boulder, Colorado by an illegal alien. He was granted a tourist visa by the Biden Administration and then he illegally overstayed that visa. In response, the Biden Administration gave him a work permit. Suicidal migration must be fully reversed,” Miller wrote on his X account.
Soliman had previously attempted to enter the U.S. in 2005 but was denied a visa, law enforcement sources confirmed to CNN, though it's unclear whether he tried again between 2005 and 2022. The suspect was seen in a video re-shared by the @StopAntisemites X account mid-tirade calling for the death of "Zionists" before tossing molotov cocktails.
“They are killers! How many children you killed?” he shouted. “End Zionists!”
Eight people were injured during the "targeted terror attack," according to the FBI via the Associated Press, though authorities didn't elaborate on the injuries. Soliman was seen holding bottles with a clear liquid while waiting for a group outside the Boulder courthouse where a weekly commemoration was being held by Run For Their Lives, an advocacy group supporting the Israeli hostages, 9News reports.
The suspect lit the liquid on fire and threw the containers at walkers, striking several people, including one woman who as reported to have been burned and needed to roll on the ground to extinguish the flames, according to Run For Their Lives organizer Miri Kornfeld.
Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said the received calls at around 1:26 p.m. local time regarding the incident.
“The initial callers indicated that there was a man with a weapon and that people were being set on fire,” Redfearn said during a press conference. “We were on scene very quickly. When we arrived, we encountered multiple victims that were injured with injuries consistent with burns and other injuries.”
The suspect was "pointed out" by the crowd and detained without incident at the scene before receiving treatment at a hospital for minor injuries. FBI Director Kash Patel initially confirmed that the bureau was investigating the incident as "a targeted terror attack."
"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. @FBI," Patel wrote on his X account.