Latest news with #BoulderCountySheriff'sOffice
New York Post
9 hours ago
- New York Post
Accused Colorado firebomber pleads not guilty to hate crimes at demonstration for Israeli hostages
A man accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at a group of people who were demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages pleaded not guilty Friday to federal hate crime charges. Mohamed Sabry Soliman was indicted earlier this week on 12 hate crime counts in the June 1 attack. He is accused of trying to kill eight people who were hurt by the Molotov cocktails and others who were nearby. Soliman's attorney, David Kraut, entered the not guilty plea on Soliman's behalf during a quick hearing. 3 In this booking photo released on June 2, 2025, by the Boulder Police Department, Mohamed Sabry Soliman is seen at the Boulder County Jail on June 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder County Sheriff's Office/AFP via Getty Images Magistrate Judge Kathryn Starnella noted that lawyers had acknowledged that a plea agreement in the case was possible later. Soliman, wearing a khaki jail uniform, entered the courtroom smiling and holding an envelope in his handcuffed hands. His right hand and arm were wrapped in a thick bandage as they were when he appeared in court last week, when an investigator testified that Soliman had burned himself as he threw the second of two Molotov cocktails at the group. He listened to a translation of the hearing provided by an Arabic interpreter through headphones. He did not speak during the hearing. Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder's Pearl Street pedestrian mall. But he threw just two of his over two dozen Molotov cocktails while yelling 'Free Palestine.' 3 Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the demonstration. Soliman, who is also being prosecuted in state court for attempted murder and other charges, told investigators he tried to buy a gun but was not able to because he was not a 'legal citizen.' He posed as a gardener, wearing a construction vest, to get close to the group before launching the attack, according to court documents. He was also indicted for using fire and an explosive to attack the group and for carrying an explosive, which were included in the hate crime counts. Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been living in the U.S. illegally with his family. 3 Soliman posed as a gardener, wearing a construction vest, to get close to the group before launching the attack, according to court documents. CBS News Soliman is being represented in state and federal court by public defenders who do not comment on their cases to the media. Prosecutors say the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual national origin. At a hearing last week, Kraut, Soliman's defense attorney, urged Starnella not to allow the case to move forward. Kraut said the alleged attack was not a hate crime. He said it was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel. An attack motivated by someone's political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.
New York Post
18-06-2025
- Climate
- New York Post
Skier plummets 1,000 feet down Colorado mountain
A skier was seriously injured after falling 1,000 feet down a Colorado mountain over the weekend as authorities scrambled to respond after numerous 911 callers kept losing a signal. The 29-year-old man was visiting South Arapaho Peak, located approximately 50 miles northwest of Denver, Saturday when he initiated a ski descent of Skywalker Couloir, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. Advertisement The man slipped and fell down the mountain, tumbling approximately 1,000 feet before eventually landing on a nearby slope, deputies said. Due to poor cell reception in the area, 911 calls kept dropping as witnesses scrambled to reach first responders. The numerous calls subsequently led authorities to initially believe there were two emergency situations until a woman hiked to the peak and was able to give the location of the man. The skier was airlifted from the mountain with serious injuries, according to police. Advertisement Due to poor cell reception in the area, 911 calls kept dropping as witnesses scrambled to reach first responders. NikonSteff – Arapaho Glacier, along the route to South Arapaho Peak in Colorado. bwolski – 'This incident highlights the limitations of cell service in remote areas and underscores the importance of carrying a Personal Locator Beacon when engaging in backcountry recreation,' the department said. Advertisement An update regarding the skier's condition was not immediately available. The Boulder County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Yahoo
Skier plummets 1,000 feet down mountain
A skier was seriously injured after falling 1,000 feet down a Colorado mountain over the weekend as authorities scrambled to respond after numerous 911 callers kept losing a signal. The 29-year-old man was visiting South Arapaho Peak, located approximately 50 miles northwest of Denver, Saturday when he initiated a ski descent of Skywalker Couloir, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. The man slipped and fell down the mountain, tumbling approximately 1,000 feet before eventually landing on a nearby slope, deputies said. American Tourist Falls 30 Feet Off Cliffside Trail In Vacation Hot Spot Due to poor cell reception in the area, 911 calls kept dropping as witnesses scrambled to reach first responders. The numerous calls subsequently led authorities to initially believe there were two emergency situations until a woman hiked to the peak and was able to give the location of the man. Read On The Fox News App Experienced Climber Dies After 3,000-Foot Plummet From North America's Highest Peak The skier was airlifted from the mountain with serious injuries, according to police. "This incident highlights the limitations of cell service in remote areas and underscores the importance of carrying a Personal Locator Beacon when engaging in backcountry recreation," the department said. Aspiring Firefighter Dies In Snowboarding Accident At Popular Ski Resort An update regarding the skier's condition was not immediately available. The Boulder County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for article source: Skier plummets 1,000 feet down mountain
Toronto Sun
05-06-2025
- Toronto Sun
Boulder firebombing suspect charged with attempted murder
Published Jun 05, 2025 • 4 minute read In this booking photo released on June 2, 2025, by the Boulder Police Department, Mohamed Sabry Soliman is seen at the Boulder County Jail on June 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado. Photo by HANDOUT / Boulder County Sheriff's Office/ BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A man accused of yelling 'Free Palestine' and throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza was charged Thursday with attempted murder and explosives crimes in a Colorado court. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was advised of the charges during a court hearing where he appeared from jail in Boulder. He has been held there since his arrest following Sunday's attack. Investigators say Soliman, who posed as a gardener, had planned it for a year. Authorities have said 15 people and a dog were victims of the attack. He has also been charged with a hate crime in federal court and is jailed on a $10 million cash bond. Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants the weekly demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling 'Free Palestine,' police said. Soliman didn't carry out his full plan 'because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,' police wrote in an affidavit. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. According to an FBI affidavit, 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. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack. Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88, and a dog. Details about how the victims were impacted would be explained in criminal charges set to be filed Thursday, said Boulder County District Attorney's office spokesperson Shannon Carbone. Defendant's family investigated U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher on Wednesday granted a request to block the deportation of Soliman's wife and five children, who like Soliman are Egyptian. U.S. immigration officials took them into custody Tuesday, but they have not been charged in the attack. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal. 'It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,' attorneys for the family wrote in a lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the plaintiff's claims 'absurd' and 'an attempt to delay justice.' She said the entire family was living in the U.S. illegally. Soliman's wife, Hayam El Gamal, a 17-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, said Eric Lee, one of the attorney's representing the family. Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew he was planning an attack, according to court documents. El Gamal said she was 'shocked' to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to her lawsuit. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents. He arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired. Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports. Soliman's wife is an Egyptian national, according to her lawsuit. She is a network engineer and has a pending EB-2 visa, which is available to professionals with advanced degrees, the suit said. She and her children all are listed as dependents on Soliman's asylum application. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hundreds of people squeezed into the Jewish Community Center in Boulder for a vigil Wednesday evening that featured prayer, singing and emotional testimony from a victim and witnesses of the firebombing attack in the city's downtown. Rachelle Halpern, who has participated in such demonstrations since 2023, said she remembers thinking it was strange to see a man with a canister looking like he was going to spray pesticide on the grass. Then she heard a crash and screams and saw flames around her feet. 'A woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground with her husband,' she said. 'People immediately, three or four men immediately rushed to her to smother the flames.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Her description prompted murmurs from the audience members. One woman's head dropped into her hands. 'I heard a loud noise, and the back of my legs burning, and don't remember those next few moments,' said a victim, who didn't want to be identified and spoke off camera, over the event's speakers. 'Even as I was watching it unfold before my eyes, even then, it didn't seem real.' Read More World Olympics Columnists Columnists NHL
New York Post
04-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Michael Goodwin: Colorado attack proves America needs some common sense on immigration
During a long-ago spate of police misconduct issues, then-NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly noted with dismay that some of the accused had only recently joined the police force. 'It's frustrating,' Kelly told me at the time, 'because we try very hard not to recruit our problems.' It's a common-sense principle that America has lost sight of when it comes to immigration. From antisemitism to street crime, the nation is bedeviled by an explosion of violence and hate. Even a cursory review reveals that a significant portion of the wrongdoing is being committed by immigrants, most of them here illegally, thanks to Joe Biden's insane open border policy. Turning on America A key distinction involves the leaders of the pro-Hamas campus turmoil. Many are foreign students from Muslim nations legally admitted on student visas, only to turn on America and Israel once they got here by supporting a terrorist organization. The result is that in both street crime and antisemitism, we have been importing far too many of our problems. The two streams came together in the heinous attack in Boulder, Colo., where Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national, was charged with throwing firebombs at people marching in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Twelve people were injured, some with serious burns. Soliman and his family were living in the US illegally — a fact most media accounts didn't mention. Boulder County Sheriff's Office/AFP via Getty Images Witnesses said Soliman was shouting 'Free Palestine' as he threw Molotov cocktails, and he later said he aimed to 'kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,' according to the FBI. Reports say he was planning the attack for a year and told officials he would do the same thing again if given the chance. Soliman and his family were living in the US illegally — a fact most media accounts didn't mention. He arrived in August 2022 on a B2 visa, which is granted for tourism and family visits. It expired in February 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which said he then applied for asylum, and got work authorization permits that also had expired. His wife and five children were taken into custody by ICE officials, and Fox News reported Tuesday they are being fast-tracked for deportation. None of this is to suggest all immigrants are likely to commit violent crimes. Rather, the recent pattern points up the need for serious vetting of immigrants before they are admitted. It also means there must be continued monitoring of their conduct, lest they violate the conditions of their stay and victimize Americans. Our nation doesn't need them because millions of people around the world who play by the rules and wait their turn to enter are almost certain to contribute more to America. They will be better citizenship candidates than those who simply walked across the border and made a phony claim of asylum. Common sense For most of our history, those were regarded as common-sense standards that were supported by both political parties, and most people were proud to call America a nation of immigrants. But as trust in the federal government declined and leftist ideologues rewrote history to declare the US a hotbed of racism and xenophobia, the government backed off enforcement. Biden was the absolute worst. His decision to let in as many as 15 million people without vetting is already proving to be one of the biggest, enduring mistakes any president ever made. The good news is the open border was a top reason Donald Trump was elected. Although his abrupt moves with tariffs have diminished public confidence in his handling of the economy, the president remains in solid positive territory among voters for his hard-line approach to illegal immigration. For good reason — he managed to virtually seal the border, as he said he would, and is trying to keep his promise to deport criminal aliens. Similarly, his aggressive moves against Harvard, Columbia and other elite colleges over the rampant harassment and intimidation of Jewish students aims to force the schools to fulfill their obligations under civil rights laws while also deporting foreign students who violate the terms of their visas. Naturally, Democrats oppose all this. Not a single congressional Democrat objected to Biden's unprecedented decision to leave the border open for the better part of four years, nor did blue state mayors and governors demand that he shut it. The invasion remains an economic and social disaster that cost the federal government, states and cities untold billions of dollars, a bleeding that hasn't ended yet. New York City alone spent at least $5 billion to house and feed more than 200,000 people who showed up uninvited, and a significant number have been arrested for shoplifting, robbery and other crimes. Around the nation, some who came during the Biden madness have been convicted of notorious murders while others have been arrested on human trafficking, gang and narcotics charges. Although studies of previous immigrants show they commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans, the vast numbers Biden allowed in dwarf any other four-year span in our history. Consider that over 50 years, from 1880 to 1930, some 27 million people legally migrated to the United States in what has been called the largest migration in human history. On an annual basis, the illegals came in far greater numbers under Biden and present a continuing potential source of trouble. If even 10% of the 15 million commit just one crime a year, that's an additional 1.5 million crimes annually. Against that backdrop, it is absolutely bizarre that so many Dems have made a top priority of letting foreign troublemakers stay in the United States. Whether it's a criminal gang member or a student leading riots, they effectively take the position that nobody should be deported without a due process system that can drag on for years. Many gang members Never mind that some are hardened gang members, drug dealers, human traffickers and mental patients who were kicked out of their home countries and prisons and sent to America. Naturally, the leftist media also opposes anything Trump does, including his effort to deport criminal aliens. The Colorado case seems to have provoked handwringing in many newsrooms, to judge by hair-splitting accounts about whether the suspect was here legally. Trump had no doubts, posting on social media that Sunday's attack was 'yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland.' Like him or not, he's absolutely right.
