Suspect who injured 12 demonstrators in Colorado attack dressed as a gardener to get closer to group, police say

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) – The man suspected of injuring 12 people in an attack in Boulder, Colorado allegedly dressed as a gardener to get closer to the group.

Mohamed Soliman is in jail on a $10 million bond after the FBI says he threw Molotov cocktails and used a makeshift flamethrower against a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators Sunday afternoon at Pearl Street Mall.

During the attack, he yelled “Free Palestine,” police said.

The group was holding its weekly demonstration for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Soliman is facing 16 state counts of attempted murder, 18 others related to the use of an incendiary device, and a federal hate crime charge.

In arrest papers obtained by KKTV, Boulder police said Soliman told investigators he dressed as a gardener with an orange vest and brought flowers to get closer to the group of peaceful demonstrators. Soliman also allegedly had a backpack weed sprayer full of gas and had more than a dozen Molotov cocktails.

The arrest papers go on to say that Soliman said he planned the attack for more than a year. He reportedly told police that he took a concealed carry class to learn how to shoot a gun but told officers he could not purchase a firearm due to his immigration status.

Soliman reportedly told police he had planned to kill all the demonstrators but appeared to have second thoughts. He didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.

The two incendiary devices he did throw into the group of about 20 people were enough to wound more than half of them, and authorities said he expressed no regrets about the attack.

“He said he wanted them all to die. He had no regrets, and he would go back and do it again,” said J. Bishop Grewell with the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.

Copyright 2025 KKTV via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.