Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, admitted to detectives that he plotted the Colorado attack for a year and intended to carry it out only after his daughter graduated from high school.
An April article in the Colorado Springs Gazette highlighted Soliman’s daughter, Habiba Soliman, as one of the recipients of the “Best and Brightest” senior class scholarship.
Who is Habiba Soliman?
Habiba Soliman told the newspaper that she spoke little English when she first landed in the US as a sophomore in high school.
In addition to improving her English, she enrolled in Thomas Maclaren School, a K–12 charter school, to fulfill her foreign language prerequisite of learning German. In addition, she established an Arabic club.
Despite being born in Egypt, Habiba spent 14 years living in Kuwait. She stated that she could not pursue her desire to study in medical school in Kuwait since she was not Kuwaiti.
“Coming to the USA has fundamentally changed me,” Habiba said. “I learned to adapt to new things even if it was hard. I learned to work under pressure and improve rapidly in a very short amount of time. Most importantly, I came to appreciate that family is the unchanging support.”
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Soliman arrived in US on tourist visa
Born in Egypt, Soliman arrived in the US on a tourist visa around the end of 2022. Soliman’s visa expired in February 2023, and he stayed in the US after requesting asylum.
He resided in Colorado Springs, around 100 miles south of Boulder, with his spouse and kids. Uber confirmed that Soliman was an Uber driver.
On May 29, Habiba received her high school diploma with honors.
Investigators found that her father drove to Boulder to attack the demonstration three days later.
As he was unable to buy a gun, Soliman told investigators he used gasoline, glass bottles, and a backpack sprayer that landscapers frequently use to apply fertilizer or insecticide.
During his journey from Colorado Springs, Soliman told detectives he made several stops to obtain bottles for the Molotov bombs, the 87-octane gas to fill them, and flowers to use as disguise so he could “get as close as possible to the group.”
