BOULDER, Colo. — The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office revealed on Wednesday that the total count of victims from the Pearl Street Mall terror incident on Sunday has gone up to 15, including one dog.
The victims range from 25 to 88 years old. Eight of them are women and seven are men, the FBI Denver office confirmed.
The Boulder DA is scheduled to formally press state charges against the suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, on Thursday for the Sunday attack. These charges will encompass attempted first-degree murder alongside other related offenses. Moreover, he faces federal hate crime charges as indicated by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Initially, reports mentioned eight people sustaining injuries and being taken to the hospital. However, during a press briefing on Monday with District Attorney Michael Dougherty, the count was revised to 12. Surprisingly, three additional victims have been identified since then.
According to a state affidavit for Soliman’s arrest, on Sunday afternoon, the local chapter of Run For Their Lives held its weekly walk to draw attention to Israeli hostages held in Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas War.
Soliman arrived shortly before 1 p.m. dressed like a gardener, according to his arrest affidavit, so he could get as close to the group as possible. He had purchased flowers from Home Depot and a backpack sprayer he filled with gas, the document reads.
Boulder police responded to the incident around 1:30 p.m. Sunday after receiving reports of a man with a “blow torch” who was setting people on fire and throwing Molotov cocktails, the affidavit says.
At the scene, law enforcement found a plastic container that contained at least 14 unlit Molotov cocktails, the affidavit reads. District Attorney Dougherty said later in the day that two additional ones were found, bringing the total to 16. Nearby, authorities found a backpack weed sprayer, which investigators believe may have contained flammable substance, the federal affidavit continues.
“The clear liquid in the glass bottles and weed sprayer were determined to be 87 octane gasoline, which was determined to contain xylene based on a field test,” the document reads.
Soliman explained that he “hated” the group and wanted to stop them from taking over “our land,” which he said was Palestine, according to a federal arrest affidavit.
Soliman was born in Egypt and moved to Kuwait, then to the United States in 2022 on a tourism visa, according to DHS. The department noted Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and has been living in the U.S. illegally since his visa expired in February 2023. The results of that asylum claim are not clear.
- Below is a map of 2024 antisemitic incidents in Colorado. Locations are broken down by city — locations are not exact.
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