Egyptian Man Pleads Guilty to Murder in Colorado Firebomb Attack on Pro-Israel Demonstrators

A 46-year-old Egyptian national pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder and 100 other state charges for a firebomb attack last June that killed one person and injured more than a dozen others at a pro-Israel demonstration in Boulder, Colorado.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman admitted the charges in Boulder County District Court. He now faces sentencing later this year that could result in life in prison without parole. Soliman threw Molotov cocktails and used a backpack weed sprayer filled with gasoline as a makeshift flamethrower.

An 82-year-old woman, injured in the attack, died more than three weeks later from her burns. Police recovered 16 unused Molotov cocktails at the scene.

Investigators said Soliman had planned the assault for about a year. When interviewed afterward, he told authorities he wanted everyone at the demonstration to die, expressed no regrets and said he would carry out the attack again. He yelled "Free Palestine" while throwing two of more than two dozen firebombs he had prepared.

The demonstration that day drew roughly 20 participants. Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. Soliman had been living with his family in a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs, about 97 miles south of Boulder, at the time.

He had moved to the United States from Kuwait in 2022 and worked a series of low-paying jobs.

Soliman has pleaded not guilty to separate federal hate crime charges. Prosecutors are considering whether to seek the death penalty in that case. His federal defense lawyers argue the attack was motivated by opposition to Zionism rather than to Jewish people, which they say would not qualify as a hate crime under federal law.

>"Our mother suffered indescribable pain for more than three weeks before succumbing to her injuries. " — Statement from victim's family read in court, May 7 2026 (Denver Post) US Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally after overstaying a tourist visa, though he had applied for asylum in September 2022.

His now ex-wife and their five children were taken into immigration custody after the attack. The family was held in a Texas immigration facility until a federal judge ordered their release in April. Authorities later re-arrested them and attempted deportation, but federal judges halted those efforts.

Israel's subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed at least 72,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable. The conflict has left much of Gaza in ruins and displaced hundreds of thousands. Boulder's mayor pro tem described the attack as horrific and noted that victims included some of her close friends.

Soliman's state guilty plea resolves the local murder case but leaves the federal proceedings unresolved.