The man who firebombed a pro Israel rally in Boulder pleads guilty to federal hate crimes

The federal case against the Boulder firebombing attacker closed its main chapter on Thursday. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national who was living in Colorado Springs at the time of the attack, pleaded guilty in federal court in Denver to nine counts of hate crime offenses and three explosives charges, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty. The plea agreement asks that he be sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years, and a judge will sentence him on January 7.

"The defendant admitted that he committed the attack because of the actual or perceived Jewish religion and Israeli national origin of the group he targeted," the Justice Department said in its statement.

On June 1, 2025, Soliman went to Boulder's Pearl Street Mall dressed as a gardener and attacked a weekly Run for Their Lives march, a walk held in solidarity with the hostages Hamas seized on October 7, 2023. Prosecutors said he shouted "Free Palestine" as he threw two Molotov cocktails into the crowd. He had brought 18 of the bottles in a box and tried twice to buy a gun before the attack and was denied both times. State prosecutors counted 29 victims. Thirteen people were physically injured, and Karen Diamond, 82, later died of her injuries. An injured dog brought an animal cruelty charge in the state case.

Soliman already pleaded guilty in May to more than 100 state charges, including first degree murder, and a state judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole. At that hearing he asked the court for the death penalty, spoke of his respect for Jewish people he has known, and said he is against Israel. In the federal case he had earlier asked prosecutors to seek death against him. Federal prosecutors chose the life sentence path instead, and his federal public defender did not immediately comment on Thursday's plea.

Soliman had been granted work authorization that later expired, according to federal officials. He was living with his wife and their five children in a Colorado Springs apartment at the time of the attack. The couple divorced in April, and he recently dropped his opposition to removing his family from the United States.