Man attacks Colorado crowd with firebombs, 8 people injured
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WASHINGTON - Eight people were injured on June 1 when a 45-year-old man yelled “Free Palestine” and threw incendiary devices into a crowd in Boulder, Colorado, where a demonstration to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza was taking place, the authorities said.
Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years old were taken to hospitals, Boulder police said.
The authorities had earlier put the count of the injured at six and said at least one of them was in a critical condition.
“As a result of these preliminary facts, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,” said Mr Mark Michalek, the Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent in charge of the Denver field office.
The agent named the suspect as Mohamed Soliman, who was hospitalised shortly after the attack.
Reuters could not immediately locate contact information for him or his family.
FBI director Kash Patel described the incident as a “targeted terror attack”, and Colorado Attorney-General Phil Weiser said it appeared to be “a hate crime given the group that was targeted”.
Boulder police chief Stephen Redfearn said he did not believe anyone else was involved. “We’re fairly confident we have the lone suspect in custody,” he said.
The attack took place at Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district in the shadow of the University of Colorado, during an event organised by Run For Their Lives, an organisation devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel
In a statement, the group said the walks have been held every week since then for the hostages, “without any violent incidents until today”.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on X he was shocked by the “terrible anti-Semitic terror attack”, describing it as “pure anti-Semitism”.
Boulder Police chief Stephen Redfearn speaking to the media about the June 1 attack.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the US over Israel’s war in Gaza, which has spurred both an increase in anti-Semitic hate crime as well as moves by conservative supporters of Israel led by US President Donald Trump to brand pro-Palestinian protests as anti-Semitic.
His administration has detained protesters without charge and cut off funding to elite US universities that have permitted the demonstrations.
In a post to X, Mr Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Soliman had overstayed his visa and been allowed to work by the previous administration.
He said it was further evidence of the need to “fully reverse” what he described as “suicidal migration”. Reuters was not able to independently verify the suspect’s immigration status.
When asked about Soliman, the Department of Homeland Security said more information would be provided as it became available.
Victims burned
Ms Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old student at the University of Colorado who witnessed the Boulder incident, said she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns on their legs.
One of them appeared to have been badly burned on most of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, she said.
She described seeing a man, who she presumed to be the attacker, standing in the courtyard shirtless, holding a glass bottle of clear liquid and shouting.
“Everybody is yelling, ‘get water, get water’,” Ms Coffman said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a prominent Jewish Democrat, said he was closely monitoring the situation.
“This is horrifying, and this cannot continue. We must stand up to anti-Semitism.”
The attack follows the arrest of a Chicago-born man over the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington
The suspect, later identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, opened fire on a group of people leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights anti-Semitism.
The shooting fuelled polarisation in the US over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis posted on social media that it was “unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack here in Boulder”. REUTERS
