Immigration authorities detaining wife, children of suspect in Boulder fire attack

Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post on Jun 3, 2025

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Federal immigration authorities are detaining the wife and five children of the suspect accused of burning a dozen people at a demonstration in Boulder that sought the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a video posted on social media Tuesday.

Mohammed Sabry Soliman, 45, an immigrant who was living in the U.S. illegally after overstaying a tourist visa, is facing charges that he tried to kill demonstrators by burning them with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails during their weekly gathering Sunday on the Pearl Street Mall.

Soliman, who was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years, arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023. He overstayed his visa and sought political asylum in September 2022. He settled in the Colorado Springs area with his wife and children.

Soliman told investigators he did not share his plan with his wife, who cooperated with authorities after the attack.

The family is being detained, Noem said in a post on the social media site X.

“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” she wrote.

Steve Kotecki, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Denver, did not return requests for comment Tuesday. A Denver Post inquiry with the national ICE office was not answered.

Twelve people were hurt in the attack, which happened at about 1:26 p.m. outside the historic Boulder courthouse at Pearl and 13th streets.

The Department of Homeland Security on Monday also announced that it was bolstering its ICE tip line, a phone number that anyone can call to report “suspicious criminal activity by illegal aliens,” according to a Monday news release.

“Yesterday’s terrorist attack by a suspect illegally in our country, underscores the importance of getting these illegal aliens out of our country,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the news release.

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