The wife and five children of a man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza have been arrested by federal immigration authorities.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, is said to have disguised as a gardener to injure 12 in Boulder, Colorado on Sunday.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “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.
“I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and for all of their families. Our thoughts and our prayers go out to all of them. And I want them to know, justice will be served.”
She did not say if there were plans to deport relatives. Egyptian national Soliman’s daughter reportedly graduated from high school recently.
Officials say Soliman shouted “Free Palestine” as he threw two out of 18 petrol bombs into the crowd.
They say he planned to kill all the demonstrators but apparently had second thoughts.
Victims ranged in age from 52 to 88 with injuries minor to serious. Holocaust survivor, Rabbi Israel Wilhelm, is the eldest.
The two incendiary devices he did throw at the group of about 20 people staging their weekly demonstration were enough to injure more than half of them, and authorities said he expressed no regrets about the attack.
Soliman, who is in America illegally, told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his plans, according to court documents.
He planned the attack for more than a year and specifically targeted what he described as a Zionist group”, authorities said.
Colorado’s acting US attorney, J Bishop Grewell, told a news conference Monday: “When he was interviewed about the attack, he said he wanted them all to die, he had no regrets, and he would go back and do it again.”
Prosecutors filed separate criminal cases against Soliman, charging him with a hate crime and attempted murder, respectively.
He faces additional state charges related to the petrol bombs, and more charges are possible in federal court, where the Justice Department will seek a grand jury indictment.
Soliman is being held on a $10 million (£7.39m) bond.
His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment Monday after a hearing where he appeared before a state judge. His next hearing is Thursday.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman left an iPhone hidden in a desk drawer at his Colorado Springs home that contained messages to his family.
After his arrest, his wife brought the phone to the local police department, saying it was his but was also used by other members of the family.
