Boulder Firebomb Attacker Soliman Pleads Guilty to 12 Federal Counts Including Hate Crime Resulting in Death; Attack Killed 1, Injured 7
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado announced that Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 47, an Egyptian national, pleaded guilty in federal court on October 29 to one hate crime resulting in death, eight additional hate crime charges, and three explosives charges, admitting that he committed the attack because of the actual or perceived Jewish religion and Israeli national origin of the group he targeted.
According to the plea agreement, on June 1, 2025, Soliman threw two lit Molotov cocktails at members of the Boulder chapter of Run for Their Lives, a group that organized walks in cities across the United States to raise awareness for the hostages held following the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel. The group was assembled in front of the historic Boulder County Courthouse on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall, and Soliman yelled "Free Palestine" as he threw the Molotov cocktails.
Soliman admitted that his intent was to kill as many people as possible. He took several steps to plan the attack, including purchasing components and building over a dozen Molotov cocktails — glass jars filled with gasoline and stuffed with rags to act as a wick — and a weed sprayer backpack filled with gasoline, much of which he did not successfully deploy. Boulder Police Department officers responded and arrested him at the scene.
The attack took the life of Karen Sorin Diamond, who suffered severe burns to every part of her body and succumbed to her injuries after over three weeks of treatment in the hospital. The attack also caused significant injuries to seven other people in front of the courthouse. Several of them, including Karen Diamond's husband, were severely burned and spent weeks recovering in the hospital, while others were traumatized by what they witnessed.
"By his own admissions, Mohamed Soliman's hateful attack on our neighbors in Boulder was antisemitic," said U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Peter McNeilly. "All Americans should feel free to pursue their faith and way of life without fear that doing so will put their personal safety at risk. Antisemitism erodes the common ties that bind our great nation together and there is no place for it in America."
Sentencing is scheduled for January 7, 2027, before U.S. Senior District Judge John L. Kane. The case was investigated by the FBI Denver Field Division and the Boulder Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa Hindman and Daniel Pastor with the assistance of Trial Attorneys Sarah Howard and Khalil Quinan of the Justice Department Civil Rights Division's Criminal Section. Case number 1:25-cr-00194-JLK.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：科罗拉多州 Boulder 县历史法院大楼，2025年袭击就发生在这座法院门前。Tony Webster 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The historic Boulder County Courthouse in Colorado, in front of which the 2025 attack took place. Photo by Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
