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.