U.S. immigration authorities detain family of man charged in Colorado attack

Egyptian man accused of firebombing event in Colorado faces deportation after injuring 12 in support of Israeli hostages.

The wife and five children of an Egyptian man accused of firebombing an event in Colorado in support of Israeli hostages were taken into custody Tuesday (June 3, 2025) by the U.S. immigration officials and threatened with a swift deportation.

“The family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, could be deported as early as Tuesday night,” the White House said in a post on X. It’s rare that family members of a person accused of a crime are detained and threatened with deportation in this way.

“Soliman, disguised as a gardener, had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s (June 1, 2025) demonstration and had 18 Molotov cocktails, but he threw just two while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Mr. Soliman, who federal authorities say has been living in the U.S. illegally, 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 threw were enough to injure 12 of the participants in the weekly demonstration held at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder,” authorities said, “noting that he expressed no remorse about the attack.”

Mr. Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his plans for the attack, according to court documents that, at times, spelled his name as “Mohammed.”

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) affidavit, Mr. Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel.

Mr. Soliman left an iPhone hidden in a desk drawer at his Colorado Springs home that contained messages to his family, according to an FBI affidavit. After his arrest, his wife gave his phone to police, saying it was his but was also used by other family members.