Boulder suspect’s application for concealed handgun permit was denied
Boulder Police Department
(BOULDER, CO) — The suspect in Sunday’s Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado, tried to buy a handgun in November but was denied, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Mohamed Soliman — who was arrested after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails during a pro-Israel demonstration, injuring 12 — tried to buy the weapon on Nov. 22, 2024, but was denied based on National Instant Criminal Background Check System, according to the bureau.
The reason for his denial wasn’t disclosed. He didn’t appeal the denial, the bureau said.
About a month later, on Dec. 30, 2024, CBI denied his application for a concealed handgun permit.
After Soliman was arrested Sunday, he allegedly told investigators that he took a concealed carry class to learn how to fire a gun, but “had to use Molotov cocktails [for the attack] after he was denied the purchase of a gun due to him not being a legal citizen,” state court documents said.
Soliman said he used YouTube to learn how to make the Molotov cocktails, documents said. Sixteen unused Molotov cocktails were within “arm’s reach” when he was arrested, the FBI 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. He appeared in court virtually on Monday. He has yet to enter a plea.
Soliman is accused of attacking a group advocating for the hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas.
Soliman told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” 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),” documents said.
Soliman, a husband and father of five, was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, court documents said.
Soliman has been in the U.S. on an expired tourist visa, officials said. He was granted a work permit, but that had also expired in March.
His wife and children are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the family is being processed for expedited removal, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Soliman allegedly said he had been planning Sunday’s attack for one year but waited until his daughter graduated from high school last Thursday to carry it out, state and federal documents said.
ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey, Emily Shapiro and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Some 350,000 New Jersey commuters could soon find themselves scrambling for other ways to get to work if contract disagreements between New Jersey Transit and its engineers’ union aren’t resolved, according to transit officials.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) has threatened to strike as early as Friday, May 16 unless NJ Transit and the union are able to agree on new contract terms and conditions for the workers who drive the trains. If no deal is reached, all New Jersey Transit commuter trains – and the MTA Metro-North West of Hudson service – will stop running.
“We have sought nothing more than equal pay for equal work, only to be continuously rebuffed by New Jersey Transit,” BLET General Chairman Tom Haas said during a press conference on May 9. “New Jersey Transit engineers want to keep the trains moving but the simple fact is that trains do not run without engineers.”
BLET National President Mark Wallace said during the press conference that it’s been five years since train engineers working for NJ Transit have received a pay increase. He also said many engineers might seek work at Amtrak or the Long Island Railroad if their contract requirements are not met.
“Reasonable people would vote for an agreement that is fair,” Wallace said.
Haas said during the news conference that engineers working for NJ Transit earn an average salary of $113,000 a year. If New Jersey Transit CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average salary of $170,000 a year for engineer operators, then “we got a deal,” Haas said.
“NJ TRANSIT locomotive engineers already have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000,” according to a statement on the New Jersey Transit website regarding negotiations with the BLET.
During a separate press conference the same day, Kolluri responded to the union’s arguments, saying Haas previously agreed to a wage increase to $49.82 an hour but then later demanded even higher wages because he thought there was “a better pot at the end of the rainbow.”
“I cannot keep giving money left and right to solve a problem. It all comes down to, who is going to pay for this? Money does not grow on trees,” Kolluri said.
ABC News requests sent to NJ Transit and the BLET for comment regarding Wallace, Haas and Kolluri’s statements concerning pay increase claims did not receive a response.
According to TV station WABC in New York, both sides will meet again Thursday morning for 11th-hour negotiations to avert the strike.
New Jersey Transit and BLET representatives met Monday with the National Mediation Board in Washington, D.C. to continue negotiations.
“We want to thank the National Mediation Board (NMB) for convening today’s meeting,” NJ Transit said in a statement on their website following the meeting. “We found the discussion to be constructive and look forward to continuing negotiations in good faith. To respect the collective bargaining process, we will not be sharing any additional details publicly at this time.”
There was no public BLET statement following the National Mediation Board meeting, nor did BLET immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.
NJ Transit states that if they were to accept BLET’s terms, it would cost both them and New Jersey taxpayers $1.363 billion between July 2025 and June 2030. Additionally, if BLET chooses to strike, the taxpayer cost of providing a limited alternative service via buses would be $4 million per day, NJ Transit claims.
NJ Transit commuters were already hit with a 15% fare increase on July 1, 2024, with an additional systemwide 3% fare increase scheduled to go into effect July 1 of this year and every subsequent year. NJ Transit said that the increase was necessary in order to cover a budget deficit caused in part by a pandemic-era decrease in ridership, as well as other increased costs, including inflation.
Should the strike commence on May 16, NJ Transit said it “strongly encourages all those who can work from home to do so and limit traveling on the NJ Transit system to essential purposes only.”
NJ Transit officials also said that they’ve developed a contingency plan that includes adding “very limited capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and contracting with private carriers to operate bus service” for commuters that typically rely on the trains.
Even with the expanded bus service, however, NJ Transit said that it “estimates that it can only carry approximately 20% of current rail customers” because the bus system doesn’t have the capacity to replace commuter rail service.
Xuan Sharon Di, associate professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics at Columbia University, told ABC News the potential NJ Transit strike would be a “disaster” for the traffic in Manhattan due to the increased bus and car traffic into the city from commuters unable to take the train. There also will be the added penalty of commuters into Manhattan having to pay recently enacted congestion pricing.
“New Jersey Transit is the backbone for people who live in New Jersey to move around. This is actually shocking to me,” Di told ABC News of the prospect of a strike.
Steven Chien, civil and environmental engineering professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said many of his colleagues use NJ Transit to commute and that a strike will “paralyze vital transportation arteries in our regions.”
(HONOLULU) — A Hawaii man was arrested for allegedly trapping an elderly woman in her car for several days and later forcing her to withdraw money from her bank account, according to the Honolulu Police Department.
On March 30, officials received reports of a kidnapping incident occurring in the Kailua and Kaneohe area, police said.
The suspect, a 22-year-old male, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly restraining a 78-year-old woman from leaving her vehicle for about three or four days, police said in a statement.
The woman was then brought to a bank by the suspect and “instructed to withdraw money from her account,” police said.
She was able to inform the employees at the bank, “who in turn contacted the police and informed the police of the situation,” officials said.
The suspect was “positively identified and arrested for kidnapping and robbery,” police said.
On Saturday, the suspect was charged with first-degree robbery, with a bail set to $30,000, police said.
The name of the suspect was not released by police.
(AUSTIN) — Police in Texas said they are looking for a missing 9-year-old girl who hasn’t been seen in over seven years whose disappearance was uncovered after the child’s mother was arrested for allegedly locking her 7-year-old daughter in a closet for weeks.
Virginia Marie Gonzales, 33, of Austin, was arrested on a charge of injury to a child after the 7-year-old girl was found “locked in a closet and starving” last month, according to Austin Detective Russell Constable.
The girl’s grandmother called police after she found the child “malnourished, soiled and barricaded in a bedroom closet” on April 3, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The grandmother had gone to the apartment after Gonzales was arrested for marijuana possession, according to the affidavit.
Gonzales allegedly barricaded her child in the closet for a month, feeding her a hot dog or corn dog in the morning and evening and half a cup of water daily, according to the affidavit.
The girl was immediately taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, where she was found to weigh 29 pounds and had signs of malnourishment, according to the affidavit. She is currently recovering, Constable said during a press briefing Tuesday, calling the case “emotionally difficult.”
There were six other children in the home between the ages of 2 and 14 who appeared to be physically healthy, police said. Though during the investigation, authorities learned that there was an eighth child, Ava Marie Gonzales, who was not inside the home and had not been seen by family or friends since December 2017, when she was 2 and in the custody of her mother, police said.
“Austin Police Department’s missing person detectives are seriously concerned about Ava’s welfare, given the circumstances in which Ava’s 7-year-old sibling was found,” Constable said.
ABC News reached out to Gonzales’ attorney and did not immediately receive a response. She is being held in the Travis County Correctional Complex on $75,000 bond and has a court hearing scheduled next week, online jail and court records show.
Ava has not been reported missing by her mother or anyone else, Constable said.
Constable said the girl’s mother has “provided conflicting information to many different family members” about Ava’s whereabouts, and police are asking for anyone who may have seen her or knows where she is to come forward.
Police have not identified her father, he said.
Constable said Gonzales has provided police some information regarding her missing child that they are trying to corroborate.
“We’re hoping to get some more information and try to figure out where she is,” he said.
As far as Austin police are aware, none of Gonzales’ children are enrolled in school, Constable said.
Police released an age-progressed photo of Ava, who has brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information is asked to email ava@austintexas.gov or can anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 512-572-8477.
ABC News’ Amanda Morris contributed to this report.
