Family of Colorado attack suspect taken into ICE custody
The family of the Egyptian national charged with attempted murder after an antisemitic Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado, has been taken into ICE custody, a DHS official told CNN Tuesday.
The suspected attacker, Mohamed Soliman, has a wife and five children, according to court filings. The U.S. immigration status of those six family members, who are currently being held in Florence, Colorado, is unclear.
The FBI identified Soliman as the lone suspect in the attack, in which he is accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to set people on fire at an event in Boulder held in support of hostages in Gaza.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Tuesday that Soliman’s family has been taken in ICE custody, adding that federal officials are investigating whether they knew about or provided support for the attack Sunday.
“Today, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado terrorist, and illegal alien, Mohamed Soliman, into ICE custody,” Noem said.
She added: “We’re also investigating to what extent his family knew about this horrific attack, if they had any knowledge of it or if they provided support to it.”
Soliman told detectives after he was arrested that “no one” knew about his attack plans and that “he never talked to his wife or family about it,” according to the affidavit for his arrest filed Sunday.
“In light of yesterday’s horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media Monday.
Soliman, who now faces federal hate crime and multiple state felony charges, appeared in state court Monday and is expected to appear in federal court on Friday. CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment. It is unclear if the family has retained legal counsel.
In an interview with federal and local officials after the attack, Soliman said he “wanted to kill all Zionist people,” and had been planning the attack for a year.
Attack brings ‘horrendous memories’ of Jewish history
A dozen people between the ages of 25 and 88 were injured in the attack in Boulder, many of whom were older adults. All of the victims are expected to survive, police said.
A husband and wife were also severely burned, both still in the hospital in “serious condition,” their rabbi, Marc Soloway, told CNN on Tuesday.
“I have a congregant in her 80s who is touch-and-go with horrific burns all over her body, and was lying on the ground in flames, bringing back horrendous memories of our own Jewish history,” Soloway said.
Brian Horwitz, 37, was at a nearby cafe when the attack began. He heard the screams and ran toward the suspect.
“It was easily the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Horwitz said. “There’s someone who is outraged enough to go and attack these elderly people who are doing absolutely nothing to provoke it other than walk in silence and meet in a courtyard peacefully. It’s unbelievable.”
The attack was a year in the planning
Only one thing held Soliman back from attacking sooner, he told authorities: Waiting for his daughter to graduate high school.
Soliman targeted the marchers, who gathered to take part in the global “Run for Their Lives” event to raise awareness for the 58 Israeli hostages still in Gaza.
He was seeking revenge, he told detectives, as he felt the group didn’t care about Palestinian hostages and that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people,” according to the affidavit.
Three days after Soliman’s oldest daughter graduated with her high school diploma, he schemed his way to Boulder, leaving behind an iPhone with messages to his family hidden inside a desk drawer, according to the federal complaint.
Soliman, who was born in Egypt but lived in Kuwait for 17 years, arrived in the United States in August 2022 as a non-immigrant visitor and in 2023 received a two-year work authorization that expired in March, a Homeland Security official Monday.
He found brief work as an accountant after moving to Colorado Springs with his wife and children. Health care company Veros Health said in a statement that Soliman was an employee beginning in May 2023 but left just three months later. The company did not respond to questions about his departure.
On the night of the attack, the FBI executed a search warrant on the family’s Colorado Springs home. The family was “cooperative” during the search, the FBI said Monday.
Soliman’s wife brought her husband’s iPhone to the Colorado Springs police following his arrest, according to the federal affidavit.
CNN’s John Miller, Lauren Mascarenhas, Curt Devine, Majlie de Puy Kamp, Mostafa Salem and Evan Perez contributed to this report.
