Boulder group leader recounts ‘panic’ as attack unfolded: ‘They’re literally on fire’

As his friends caught fire in front of his eyes in Boulder, Colorado, Omer Shachar felt “panic right away” and said he knew he had to help extinguish the flames.

Shachar, a co-leader of Run for Their Lives in Boulder, told ABC News he was standing in front of the group outside the Boulder courthouse Sunday afternoon when a man threw a Molotov cocktail under their legs.

“They’re literally on fire,” he said of the walk participants. “I don’t know if I can express it enough — literally on fire and trying to pull my friend out of the fire.”

“Once someone could help her, I was reaching out to the [attacker] and try, I don’t know what I thought, but maybe to tackle him … but we saw that he’s approaching to a container full of bottles and realized that it’s not a good idea, so we stepped back,” Shachar said. “We’re trying to keep people away as much as possible, although some of them couldn’t walk. One of them was on the ground where the fire is.”

Shachar said passersby stepped in with water bottles to try to help put out the blaze.

Authorities are reviewing a newly released video showing the chaos and panic in the attack’s aftermath.

The suspect, 45-year-old Mohamed Soliman, was apprehended after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails in an “act of terrorism” during the pro-Israel demonstration, officials said.

Twelve people were injured, officials said. Two victims remain in the hospital.

Soliman, who allegedly disguised himself as a gardener during the attack, told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” court documents said. “SOLIMAN stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again.”

He “said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine),” documents said.

Shachar said Run for Their Lives holds a peaceful walk every Sunday to raise awareness about the hostages who remain held in Gaza by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023.

Participants include those who are “Jewish and non-Jewish, right and left, Israelis and non-Israelis, Americans and non-Americans,” he said. “And people are coming for the same cause — to bring those hostages back home.”

Shachar said he hopes the group can return to their walks soon.

“At the moment, Run for the Lives, the international group, asked to stop walking until we understand better safety arrangements and security arrangements,” he said. “However, personally, I will say that as long as we can do it, and as long that we’re working with the police and we can do it, I will walk until the last hostage is back home.”

Soliman, a husband and father of five who lives in Colorado Springs, allegedly said he had been planning the attack for one year but waited until his daughter graduated from high school last Thursday to carry it out, state and federal documents said.

Soliman had taken a concealed carry class to learn how to fire a gun, but “had to use Molotov cocktails [for the attack] after he was denied the purchase of a gun due to him not being a legal citizen,” state court documents said.

Sixteen unused Molotov cocktails were within “arm’s reach” of the suspect when he was arrested, FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said on Monday.

The unlit Molotov cocktails were “comprised of glass wine carafe bottles or Ball jars containing clear liquid and red rags hanging out of the bottles,” court documents said. Police also found a “backpack weed sprayer, potentially containing a flammable substance. The clear liquid in the glass bottles and weed sprayer were determined to be 87 octane gasoline, which was determined to contain xylene.”

Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime and state charges including 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to court documents. He appeared in court virtually on Monday. He has yet to enter a plea.

Soliman is in the U.S. on an expired tourist visa, officials said. He was granted a work permit, but that had also expired in March. He was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, court documents said.