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

(BOULDER, CO) — 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.

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.

Soliman allegedly told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” federal 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),” the state documents said.

Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime and state charges including 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to court documents.

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.”