HILLSBOROUGH, Fla. — A walk for peace turned violent in a matter of minutes when a man attacked a group of demonstrators with a makeshift explosive in Boulder, Colorado. Many here in the Tampa Bay area said they are disturbed by such a heinous act of violence.
WATCH: Tampa Bay community reacts to Colorado attack; man charged with hate crimes in firebombing attack
45-year-old Mohamed Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime, including 16 counts of attempted murder, accused of using a homemade blowtorch and at least three Molotov cocktails to attack a pro-Israel group marching for the release of hostages, Sunday afternoon.
"It was like a punch in the gut," said Florida Holocaust Museum President and CEO Eric Stillman. "This is such a horrible crime."
Two weeks ago, Stillman said he was in Washington, DC when two Israeli embassy staff members were shot and killed.
He said anti-Semitic hate crimes have gotten out of hand, and they need to stop.
"Acts of domestic violent extremism like what happened in Boulder, Colorado, and in Washington, DC, that this is not acceptable in our country," said Stillman. "And, that we as Americans really have to band together and cannot tolerate this dehumanization of any group of people."
A Holocaust survivor was reportedly among the 12 victims hurt during this “act of terrorism.”
"The attempt to burn that person alive is so reprehensible, and it's just the worst example of how people in our society can be turned into thinking that somehow this is an acceptable response," said Stillman.
The Muslim advocacy group, Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR, agrees.
In a press release, CAIR called the attack a "'heinous and unacceptable' crime that does not represent the countless Americans of diverse backgrounds working to end U.S. support the genocide in Gaza."
Hiba Rahim, the deputy executive director with CAIR-Florida, said in a statement, “Muslims do not condone these types of actions against innocent individuals.”
She added on and said, while this specific attack did not directly affect people here in our area, she said, “Palestinian Muslims, including Muslims in Florida and in Tampa Bay, have been directly harmed in many ways due to their peaceful protests against Israel’s massacre. For some people, members of their own family in Palestine were killed.”
Officials in a press conference Monday afternoon said Soliman acted because he hated what he called the Zionist group. They said he was not a legal citizen and was denied the purchase of a gun, so Soliman resorted to learning how to create a Molotov cocktail on his own.
His bond is at $10 million, and his next court date is set for Thursday.
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