Colorado Order – Again, the war in Gaza is back to America.
A man using what police call a “make-up flamethrower,” launched a horrifying attack on protesters in Boulder on Sunday, raising questions about why security was not strong in the wake of a previous attack in Washington, D.C.
They ran for their lives, the organisation behind the longstanding demonstrations that advocated the return of Israeli hostages, and expected their members to have safety concerns.
The group provided principles to make the event safer, such as “Don’t protest,” “Be polite and peaceful,” and “Don’t interfere with your neighbors.”
“Focus on humanity,” the guidance on its website states. “This is about innocent children, women, the elderly and other civilians detained by terrorists, not about war.”
The Boulder branch of Run for Thir Live is holding regular demonstrations on October 7, 2023 calling for Hamas to release hostages during a terrorist attack on Israel.
Kyle and Elizabeth Shorter, who live outside of Denver, were taking wedding photos in Boulder when the attack occurred, said the run protesters for their lives became street equipment.
“Every time I’ve been here for the past few years, they’ve always been here,” Elizabeth Shorter said.
And experts can make it difficult to protect against terrorists, experts said.
“We usually have regular details assigned to protect protesters,” said Brian Higgins, who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and runs a security consulting company called Group 77.
Higgins didn’t know what Boulder police did on Sunday, but was surprised by the video showing attackers threatening people before police intervened.
“It should have happened,” Higgins said. “It raises me doubts about how much security this protest had.”
Police Chief Stephen Redfern said his department is aware of events taking place later that month and plans to provide additional security coverage. “We want to ensure that people feel comfortable and safe in this community,” he told reporters Monday.
Shira Weiss, global coordinator for Run for Hive, said that while some chapters have long relied on protection from local police and private security, “In reality, individual group leaders want to use security and when do they want to use security?”
And while some local chapters paused after the Boulder attack to “give space to reconstruct and heal ourselves,” others said, “we won’t stop. We’re going to get back there next week.”
“We’ve clearly been repeating this to group leaders that safety is our number one priority,” she said.
Although she was clearly scared of what she saw, Lisa Turnquist, 66, a survivor of the attack, said she would not be prevented from speaking on behalf of Hamas and the Israeli hostages.
“This is when we have to stand up and we have to prominently push back,” said Turnquist, who spoke with a reporter outside the historic Boulder County Courthouse where the attack took place. “I just want a hostage house.”
Authorities said they were injured on Sunday, with eight of them still in hospital. The initial call to police reported people “on fire” and officers found multiple casualties with burns and other injuries, the Boulder police chief told reporters.
Egyptian National Mohamed Sabri Soliman, 45, has been charged with attempted murder and hate crimes.
The attack comes just 11 days after two Israeli embassy workers were shot outside the Washington capital Jewish Museum.
In both the Boulder and Washington attacks, the attackers are said to have yelled the same thing as “free Palestine.”
A security expert who spoke with NBC News questioned the Boulder man allegedly launched such an attack on downtown, even after awareness rose after Washington’s murder.
Higgins said his security clients include several major Jewish organizations. And since the murder of Israeli Embassy workers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim on May 22, he said they have added an extra layer of security.
“Given what’s going on there and what’s upsetting there, my recommendation is that there should be high security in all Gaza protests,” Higgins said.
Ever since Hamas launched a bloody, surprising attack on Israel and took 250 hostages, they have been holding regular demonstrations outside the county courthouse on Pearl Street, breathing life for their lives. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, it created an Israeli invasion of Gaza, in which over 54,000 people died.
Michael Alcazar, a former hostage negotiator with the New York Police Department who also teaches John Jay, said Pearl Street is a soft target for terrorist attacks. He said the attackers seemed unprotected and they were able to approach the protesters.
“The police chief dropped a ball over there that didn’t have a uniform presence,” Alcazar said. “Does the police chief know what’s going on in the world?”
The Boulder Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Prevention League said it had been in contact with local law enforcement in Boulder.
“We feel ADL just like many of the touches around the country. We feel this is both sadness and sadness and anger over the violence we saw,” said Oren Segal, senior vice president of Countstoremism and Intelligence in the Reflection League. “This is not just a wake-up call, not just the Jewish community.”
“Our goal is always to stay ahead of every threat,” the FBI said in a statement.
“We have long warned that a small group of lonely actors and conspirators will present a major challenge to law enforcement as there may not be many clues about their intentions,” it said.
The affidavit alleges that Soliman, a married father of five, had planned an attack for more than a year, and that one of his daughters was waiting for him to graduate before moving on his suspected plan. He did not identify where his daughter graduated.
According to the affidavit, Soliman told investigators in an arrest interview that he had studied how to make Molotov cocktails on YouTube. He also insisted he would not repent about the attack, saying that he would do it again to stop Israel from taking over “our land” referring to Palestinian territory.
Chicagoan Elias Rodriguez, who was charged with the deaths of Lisinski and Milgrim, was also motivated by the Gaza War, authorities said. He told police when he was arrested, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to court records and published reports.
In his first comment since the attack, President Donald Trump denounced the “terrifying” incident on Monday about the true society. Previously, Deputy Chief of Staff of the White House, Stephen Miller, tried to shift responsibility to the Biden administration to allow Soliman within the country.
“He was given a tourist visa by the Biden administration and then he stayed illegally on that visa,” Miller said on X on Sunday.
Homeland Security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin amplified X that Soliman applied for asylum in September 2022, saying it was “illegal in our country.”
McLaughlin later told NBC News that Soliman’s asylum claims were pending and that while his visa expired, he had not yet exhausted all legal routes to remain in the US.
Deon J. Hampton reported that he had reported Elizabeth Chuck and New York City Corky Siemasco from Boulder, Alicia Victoria Lozano, from Los Angeles.
