Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – An elderly woman who was severely injured in the firebombing attack at a protest supporting Israeli hostages held in Gaza has died, prosecutors in the US state of Colorado said Monday. “Karen Diamond, 82 years old, died tragically as a result of the severe injuries that she suffered in the attack,” the district attorney’s office in Boulder, where the violent June 1 incident occurred, said in a statement.
Following Diamond’s death, charges against the suspect in the attack, 45-year-old Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, have been amended from attempted murder to first degree murder, the statement said. It added that the district attorney’s office has revised the toll from the attack, estimating that there were 29 victims in total, including 13 who were wounded. Authorities had initially reported 15 wounded.
Soliman, who authorities say was in the country illegally after overstaying a tourist visa, already faces over 100 criminal counts for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails and spraying burning gasoline at the protesters. Last week, the US Justice Department announced federal hate crime charges against Soliman. In bystander videos, the attacker can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “Killers!”
Governor Jared Polis, the first Jewish person to lead the western state, said Monday on X that the loss of Diamond “is deeply felt by the Boulder community and our entire state, particularly within our strong Jewish community.” The Boulder attack came less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted “Free Palestine,” was arrested.
© 2024 AFP
