What to Know About the Boulder, Colorado, Attack and Suspect

A man threw Molotov cocktails on people in Boulder, Colo., who were marching on Sunday in support of the hostages seized during the 2023 Hamas-led assault on Israel, injuring a dozen people in an attack that he had planned for a year, the authorities said.

Eight of those injured were hospitalized with burns, officials said.

The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, of Colorado Springs, Colo., yelled “free Palestine” as he threw the Molotov cocktails, and he later told investigators that he wanted to “kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” an FB.I. affidavit states.

The attack intensified deep unease in the Jewish community in the United States. In recent months, two Israeli embassy aides were murdered in Washington, and a man set fire to the residence of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is Jewish.

Who was attacked?

According to an F.B.I. affidavit, Mr. Soliman threw to two lit Molotov cocktails on marchers who were participating in a weekly event called Run for Their Lives that is held in cities around the world. It is intended to call attention to the hostages taken by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.

Eight people were burned and four other people later came forward with minor injuries, officials said. The burn victims — four men and four women ranging in age from 52 to 88 — were hospitalized with injuries ranging from minor to serious. At least two of them were flown by helicopter to a burn unit in Denver.

After Mr. Soliman was arrested, investigators found 16 unlit Molotov cocktails — glass bottles filled with gasoline — as well as a backpack weed sprayer filled with gasoline, the authorities said.

Video verified by the news agency Storyful showed a man, shirtless and holding two bottles, shouting while patches of grass burned in front of the county courthouse and bystanders helped injured people.

Lisa Effress, who was eating lunch nearby, said that she ran to the scene and saw smoke, people who were half-dressed and dazed, and discarded clothes that had been used to extinguish flames. “It was horrible,” she said.

Who is the suspect?

Mr. Soliman was taken into custody after witnesses pointed him out. He was booked on multiple felony charges in the Boulder County Jail on Sunday.

In an interview with state and federal investigators, Mr. Soliman said he had been planning the attack for a year and that he wanted to stop the group from “taking over ‘our land,’ which he explained to be Palestine,” the affidavit states.

Mr. Soliman told investigators that he was born in Egypt, lived in Kuwait for 17 years and moved to Colorado Springs with his wife and five children three years ago.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said on Monday that Mr. Soliman was in the United States illegally, having entered in August 2022 on a tourist visa from Egypt and stayed past the visa’s expiration in February 2023. He filed for asylum in September 2022, said the spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin.

Mr. Soliman has been charged in federal court with a hate crime, and in state court with attempted murder, assault and possession of an incendiary device.

Before the attack, he disguised himself as a gardener so he could get close to the marchers without drawing attention, according to a Boulder police affidavit. He wore an orange vest, bought flowers from Home Depot and carried a backpack weed sprayer filled with gas, the affidavit states.

He said he had learned to shoot a gun in a concealed carry weapons class but decided to use Molotov cocktails in the attack after he was unable to buy a gun because of his immigration status, according to the affidavit.

There was no immediate indication that Mr. Soliman was linked to any particular group or network and it appeared that he had acted alone, according to Mark D. Michalek, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Denver field office.

“He was not on our radar in Boulder,” the Boulder police chief, Stephen Redfearn, said at a news conference on Monday. “We had no prior contacts with him.”

How have officials responded?

President Trump said on social media that such attacks “WILL NOT BE TOLERATED” and he criticized former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for letting Mr. Soliman into the country, although he came legally on a tourist visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Trump has a long history of using violent crimes to build support for his restrictionist immigration policies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement that the assailant had attacked in “cold blood” and called it an act of antisemitism. “This attack was aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews,” he said.

Mayor Aaron Brockett of Boulder said in an interview on Sunday night that he was outraged and saddened. “These were Jewish community members who were on a march for peace and for hostage return, and they were brutally attacked,” he said. “It’s disgusting and appalling.”

Alexandra E. Petri, Hamed Aleaziz and Amanda Holpuch contributed reporting.