Six people were injured Sunday in what the FBI immediately described as a "targeted terror attack" at an outdoor mall in Boulder, Colorado, where a group had gathered to raise attention to Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the AP reports. The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, yelled "Free Palestine" and used a makeshift flamethrower in the attack, said Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the Denver field office. Soliman was taken into custody. No charges were immediately announced but officials said they expect to hold him "fully accountable." Soliman was also injured and was taken to the hospital to be treated, but authorities didn't elaborate on the nature of his injuries.
Video from the scene showed a witness shouting, "He's right there. He's throwing Molotov cocktails," as a police officer with his gun drawn advanced on a bare-chested suspect with containers in each hand. The attack took place at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, a four-block area in downtown Boulder, where demonstrators with a volunteer group called Run For Their Lives had gathered to raise visibility for the hostages who remain in Gaza as a war between Israel and Hamas continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States.
FBI leaders in Washington said they were treating the Boulder attack as an act of "ideologically motivated" terrorism, and the Justice Department—which leads investigations into acts of violence driven by religious, racial or ethnic motivations—decried the attack as a "needless act of violence, which follows recent attacks against Jewish Americans." Police in Boulder were more circumspect about a motive. Police Chief Steve Redfearn said it "would be irresponsible for me to speculate" while witnesses were still being interviewed but noted that the group that had gathered in support of the hostages had assembled peacefully and that injuries of the victims—ranging from serious to minor—were consistent with them having been set on fire.
Sources from the Department of Homeland Security tell Fox News that Soliman is an Egyptian man who overstayed his visa and is in the US illegally. The attack occurred less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington by a Chicago man who yelled "I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza" as he was being led away by police. (This story has been updated throughout with new details.)
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