Fox News reported Sunday night that Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the suspect who allegedly yelled “Free Palestine” and threw Molotov cocktails into a group of people peacefully marching in Boulder, Colorado, to support Israeli hostages, is an Egyptian national who is in the U.S. illegally. But you wouldn’t know that from corporate media’s framing of the incident early Monday morning. 

“[I]t is clear that this is a targeted act of violence, and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,” the FBI said in a Sunday press conference with Boulder police. “This is an example of how perpetrators of violence continue to threaten communities across our nation.”

Eight confirmed victims between the ages of 52-88 were hospitalized after the attack, according to a press release from the city of Boulder. Two victims were reportedly airlifted to a local burn unit.

On Sunday night, National Correspondent for Fox News Bill Melugin revealed that “Three senior DHS sources” told the outlet Soliman “is an Egyptian national in the U.S. illegally as a visa overstay” and that he “entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.” On Monday morning, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Soliman entered the country in August 2022 using a B2 tourist visa that expired in February 2023.

But following revelations of the suspect’s immigration status, corporate media outlets downplayed both the reports of Soliman’s illegal presence in the country and the obvious motives behind the attack.

A version of a New York Times article updated at 2:37 a.m. on Monday stated that the attack was “being investigated as an act of terrorism,” but made no mention of the suspect’s nationality or immigration status. At the time, the article only noted Soliman was identified as a resident of Colorado Springs. The New York Times updated this article late Monday morning to note Soliman was “identified as an Egyptian citizen who had overstayed his tourist visa.” However, as of early Monday evening, the NYT again updated the piece, removing this fact from the introduction and burying it in a DHS statement more than ten paragraphs into the story.

The New York Times did run a piece acknowledging Soliman’s immigration status after 9 a.m. Monday morning. However, an archived version of the article shows the outlet initially put the word “illegally” — describing Soliman’s revealed unlawful presence in the U.S. — in scare quotes, appearing to call into question that important detail.

The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olahan also noted how a New York Times push notification on Sunday night highlighted that people were “injured at an event to support Israeli hostages,” but this summary obscured the fact that someone actually attacked the participants. Instead, it makes it seem like the demonstrators participating in the march might have hurt each other.

For an article featured prominently on CNN’s homepage Monday morning, the outlet chose the headline “Suspect used flamethrower and Molotovs, burning people.” While another headline populated once the article was clicked, the headline CNN published front and center on its homepage excluded the suspect’s immigration status or the fact that the victims were protesting in support of Israeli hostages.

Journalist Seth Frantzman noted on Sunday evening how CNN also jumped on the quotation train at one point, putting “peaceful” in quotes when describing the pro-Israeli demonstration. This move from CNN made it “seem that there is a question as to whether [the march] was peaceful,” Frantzman said. In the Sunday press conference with the Boulder police, the FBI stated that the attack happened at a “regularly scheduled, weekly, peaceful event.”

On Monday morning, McLaughlin highlighted headlines from the NYT, CNN, NBC News, and Reuters that all omitted Soliman’s immigration status. Again, Fox News was reporting that Soliman was in the U.S. illegally by Sunday night.

Soliman is charged with a federal hate crime and attempted murder in the state of Colorado, according to the DOJ. Court documents revealed he told police he “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead” and would attack again, ABC News reported.