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BOULDER, Colo. – A man who witnessed Sunday afternoon’s nightmarish firebombing of a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado, described a gruesome scene in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“I was right here… front row and center to this horrific event,” Alex Osante, a tourist from San Diego, said Monday. “The terrorist, or the man – perpetrator – threw a Molotov cocktail and lit five people on fire. One of the persons was lit head to toe, and the other four people were severely burned. It was really sad. Very sad.”
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, an Egyptian national in the United States illegally on an expired work visa, is suspected in the attack that took place at the Pearl Street Mall.
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Osante said he and other bystanders called first responders and helped the victims during the attack, but they did not know the exact nature of the attack at the time. He surmised that it could have been a mass shooting, or that someone could have set off a grenade.
After viewing his own video of the attack, Osante said what he witnessed fell into place.
He said that the suspect came out of the bushes wearing a yellow vest and shirt with Molotov cocktails in each hand.
“And he threw a Molotov cocktail at a woman, but when he threw the Molotov cocktail, he lit himself on fire,” Osante said. “After he lit himself on fire, he came back, he took off his vest, which looked like a bulletproof vest, and the shirt.”
He described the suspect retreating to the bushes and grabbing two more Molotov cocktails, before standing menacingly and surveying the scene while the chaos ensued.
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Osante said he’s been to 87 countries and described the attack as “the most crazy, horrific incident I’ve ever seen.” He said he returned to the location on Monday because he wanted to see the scene in a “state of normalcy.”
“Even though it was crazy, the good thing about it was that people from all different backgrounds and cultures and ethnicities came together as quickly as possible so they could help provide water and treatment and call 911 so that everything could return back to normal, and … find out who it was and stop the person from doing what he was doing.”
The pro-Israel advocates gathered on Sunday for a Run for Their Lives event, a run/walk to raise awareness about Israeli hostages still in Hamas captivity. The victims ranged in age from 52 to 88, and one of them was left in critical condition.
Soliman first arrived in the United States on a non-immigrant visa in August 2022. That visa expired in February 2023, but he remained in the country. He received a work permit from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in March 2023 that was valid through March of this year. He once again overstayed his visa and was in the country illegally during Sunday’s attack.
He has been charged federally with a hate crime.
He has been charged in Colorado with murder in the first degree – deliberation with intent – criminal attempt; murder in the first degree – extreme indifference – criminal attempt; crimes against at-risk adults/elderly; first-degree assault – non-family; first-degree assault – heat of passion; criminal attempt to commit class one and class two felonies; and use of explosives or incendiary devices during felony.
He remains in the Boulder County Jail on $10 million bond.
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