By Karina Tsui, Holmes Lybrand, Chris Boyette, John Miller

(CNN) — A man yelling “Free Palestine!” used incendiary devices and a makeshift flamethrower to attack people calling for the release of Israeli hostages Sunday in Colorado, in what authorities are calling a targeted antisemitic attack.

Witnesses described seeing huge flames and people pouring buckets of water onto burning victims. At least 12 people were injured, including four women and four men between the ages of 52 and 88, authorities said. Two victims were airlifted to the Denver metro area. At least one victim was “very seriously injured,” officials said.

No victims have died, the Boulder Police Department said Monday morning.

The FBI is investigating the attack as “an act of terrorism,” the agency said. It happened at a weekly walk in support of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Among the victims is a Holocaust survivor, according to a person who knows the victim and was at the event. It is unclear what their condition is.

The suspect in the attack, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is charged with a federal hate crime, according to an affidavit filed Sunday. He’s also facing a number of state charges, including 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder; two counts of use of an incendiary device; 16 counts of attempted use of an incendiary device; and eight counts of first-degree assault.

He was previously booked on two counts of first-degree murder.

Soliman faces life in prison if convicted of the federal charge, acting United States Attorney for the District of Colorado J. Bishop Grewell said Monday. And he could face 384 years in state prison if convicted of the 16 attempted murder counts, according to Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

Authorities recovered 16 unused Molotov cocktails after the incident, Dougherty said Monday.

Soliman made his first court appearance Monday in Colorado District Court and is scheduled to return Thursday afternoon for the filing of charges. He is being held on a $10 million cash bond, the judge said.

Soliman, who appeared on camera in an orange jumpsuit from Boulder County Jail, didn’t enter a plea at Monday’s hearing.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the department will hold the perpetrator “accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

In videos obtained by CNN, Soliman, 45, is seen shirtless, yelling “Palestine is free!” “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” He carries two bottles, and witnesses can be heard saying he’s “spraying alcohol” and “he’s making Molotov cocktails.”

Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails before he was arrested, the federal affidavit said. He arrived in the area around 1 p.m. wearing a utility vest over his shirt and carrying a garden sprayer filled with gasoline. Many witnesses said he looked like a gardener, officials said.

During an interview, Soliman told local and federal agents he had researched on YouTube how to make Molotov cocktails and bought the ingredients and constructed the incendiary devices, federal charging documents say.

Police also found a “backpack weed sprayer,” which, along with glass bottles, was determined to be filled with gasoline commonly found at gas stations as well as xylene, a colorless, highly flammable and sweet-smelling liquid, according to the federal court documents.

Officials are working to assess whether the alleged attacker has any possible mental health issues, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN. Law enforcement visited Soliman’s home in Colorado Springs, about 100 miles south of Boulder, the affidavit said.

Sunday’s attack came less than two weeks after two young Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot in Washington, DC, by a man who claimed to have been acting “for Gaza.”

“The Jewish community has been warning the world that chants of ‘globalize the Intifada’ and ‘resistance by any means necessary’ are calls to violence. We’ve now seen that violence erupt in America twice in less than two weeks,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said on social media.

Here’s what else we know about the Boulder attack.

A weekly gathering to support Israeli hostages descends into chaos

Sunday’s attack took place on the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, where a weekly “Run for Their Lives” event was being held. The event, which has taken place regularly since mid-October 2023, aims to raise awareness of Israeli hostages being held captive by Hamas and calls for their release.

“This global grass roots organization was founded on October 15, 2023, a week after the horrendous terrorist attack by Hamas. … These walks have been held every week since then for all the hostages – without any violent incidents until today,” the organization said in a statement.

Soliman targeted the group after researching them online. He knew about their meeting Sunday and was planning to conduct the attack for a year but was waiting on his daughter to graduate, according to the affidavit.

Witness Brian Horwitz told CNN he and his family were dining at a food hall near the scene when a woman ran toward them saying a man was “throwing fire” at people.

Horwitz got up and ran into the courtyard, where he saw a man carrying a tank on his back that resembled a gardening chemical sprayer.

Another man was trying to talk the suspect down, but the suspect kept yelling, “f**k you, Zionist,” “you all deserve to die,” and “you’ve killed these children.”

After calling 911, Horwitz went to see whether he could assist any victims. He described seeing an elderly woman lying on the ground, unresponsive.

“There were several people attending to her and wrapping her up, trying to ensure she was OK,” he said. People from a restaurant across the street were bringing large buckets of ice water to help extinguish the flames, he added.

He grabbed a bucket and filled it with water from a fountain in the middle of the courtyard, he said. “I just kept filling that up and pouring it on their legs.”

“Their pants were completely burned and singed off. It looked like their skin had just melted off their bodies.”

Many of the victims are well known in the community, said Elyana Funk, executive director of the University of Boulder Hillel. She talked to a couple of them, including one woman who is “healing from horrible burns.”

“She really felt like this happened not just to her, but to the whole community,” Funk said. A mother and daughter were also wounded in the attack, she said.

The mother “is a Holocaust survivor in her 80s who’s been through certainly enough trauma,” she added.

“This wasn’t a pro-Israel rally or some sort of political statement on the war,” she said. “These are peaceful people who’ve been walking for nearly 20 months weekly to bring awareness for the hostages.”

Six of the injured are members of the Congregation Bonai Shalom in Boulder, according to CNN affiliate KUSA. Four of them were hospitalized and discharged, while two were airlifted to a hospital near Denver, the congregation’s leader, Rabbi Marc Soloway, told KUSA.

One person remains in serious condition, Soloway said.

“Tragically, the person who was most seriously injured, it was their first time going on the walk,” the rabbi said.

The congregation, which Soloway said is “like a big family,” is struggling to process a range of emotions in the aftermath of the attack.

“We’re all just feeling broken and angry and grieving and sad and hopeless,” Soloway said.

Suspect not a US national, overstayed tourist visa

Videos obtained by CNN capture Soliman, shirtless, on a patch of grass near an area that has obvious burn marks. Around him are black clouds of smoke.

Witnesses said Soliman took off his vest and shirt because they had started to catch fire during the attack, according to police. He was taken to an area hospital after his arrest for treatment of burns he sustained to his hands during the attack.

In an interview with law enforcement after his arrest, Soliman “stated that he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead. Soliman stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again,” the affidavit read.

Soliman “planned on dying” in the attack, according to a warrant for his arrest. He said he threw two Molotov cocktails only because he “got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” according to the warrant, and “he would not forgive himself if he did not do it.”

No one else knew about his plan, Soliman said, according to the warrant.

Soliman had taken a concealed-carry class and learned to shoot a gun, but he was unable to purchase one because he was not a legal citizen, the warrant said.

As of Sunday, the FBI had been working to determine whether Soliman may have been suffering from mental health concerns, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Soliman arrived in the United States in August 2022 on a non-immigrant B2 visa that expired the following February, according to Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security.

Soliman is an Egyptian national, according to law enforcement sources.

He filed for asylum in September 2022, McLaughlin said on X.

Soliman was granted a work authorization in March 2023, multiple law enforcement officials said. The authorization expired at the end of March 2025, at which point it appears he remained here illegally, the officials added.

Law enforcement sources previously told CNN the suspect had applied for asylum and been rejected for a visa in 2005.

Jewish leaders on high alert after second antisemitic attack in two weeks

“Today, six people were set on fire by a terrorist in Boulder, Colorado. Why? Because they were calling for 58 hostages still held by Hamas terrorists to finally be returned home,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said on social media.

The Boulder attack was part of a “wave of domestic terror attacks aimed at the Jewish community,” said Eric D. Fingerhut, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America. Fingerhut outlined a six-point plan for the federal government to address the growing threat.

His proposals included increasing a non-profit security grant program funding to $1 billion to meet urgent needs, dedicating resources for security personnel at Jewish institutions, bolstering FBI intelligence capabilities to thwart domestic terrorism and holding social media platforms accountable for spreading antisemitic hate and incitement, among others.

The Boulder Police Department will increase the number of officers at community events in the next seven to 10 days, Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said Monday.

“We want to ensure that people feel comfortable and safe in this community gathering, and remembering what happened, as well as any other planned events that we have,” he said.

Rabbi Soloway of the heavily impacted Congregation Bonai Shalom says all services at their synagogue now require armed security.

“It is just inconceivable that Jewish people in the United States of America in 2025 can feel so unsafe right now,” Soloway told KUSA.

In response to Sunday’s attack, authorities in major cities across the US have deployed extra security at Jewish sites and community centers.

On Sunday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced in a statement an emergency meeting will be held in City Hall to address heightened security ahead of the Jewish holiday Shavuot, and the Los Angeles Police Department would be conducting “extra patrols at houses of worship and community centers” throughout the city.

“Antisemitism will not be tolerated,” she said.

On the East Coast, the New York Police Department said its presence has increased at synagogues and other religious sites across the city for Shavuot.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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