Tornadoes cut across Mississippi as severe storms damage 500 homes

BOGUE CHITTO, Miss. (AP) — Powerful storms that spawned at least three tornadoes tore through several Mississippi counties, damaging around 500 homes, uprooting trees and injuring at least 17 people, authorities said Thursday.

There were no reports of deaths after the tornadoes cut across the state's southwest late Wednesday evening, said Scott Simmons, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

He said 12 of those hurt were transported from a hard-hit trailer park in the small community of Bogue Chitto, about an hour's drive south of the state capital in rural Lincoln County.

Most of the two dozen homes at Gene’s Mobile Home Supply were flattened into heaps of splintered boards and twisted metal. People picked through the debris Thursday morning under cloudy skies as a chain saw buzzed in the background.

Krystal Miller and six others — including babies as young as 4 weeks old — grabbed a Bible and sheltered in their home's hallway when the tornado sent the building cartwheeling through the air.

“We just flipped, and it threw us all out,” she said. “It scattered everybody out. ... I can’t find the Bible.”

She said her young son was in the hospital for monitoring and another child was injured in the face.

“The trailer is in pieces but we made it out,” Miller said. “I'm feeling grateful.”

One intact trailer lay flipped on its roof near the tree line. Several cars, some with hazard lights blinking, appeared to have been picked up by the storm.

“We know there were at least three tornadoes,” said Daniel Lamb, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service office in Jackson.

“The same storm produced at least two tornadoes from Franklin, Lincoln into Lawrence counties, and then there was another one from Lamar possibly into Forest County.”

He said there may have been more. “Those are just the ones that we are able to confirm by radar before even having gone down there.”

“Pray for Mississippi,” Gov. Tate Reeves posted online, saying the state Emergency Management Agency was coordinating response efforts.

Many roads were still blocked in Lincoln County and teams from the agency were assessing the damage.

“We ask that you please refrain from sightseeing as crews are working,” the department posted early Thursday.

The governor said a volunteer rescue group was providing a 50-person shelter pod, a high-powered generator and 10 pallets of supplies to the county, which reported at least 200 damaged homes.

Lamar County to the southeast reported about 275 homes damaged, according to the state emergency management agency. Another 10 to 12 homes were damaged in Lawrence County.

More storms were expected Thursday with the possibility of tornadoes across parts of Alabama, Georgia and Florida, the weather service said. Strong storms also were possible for parts of the Carolinas and Texas.

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

Damage to Gene’s Mobile Home Supply, a trailer park in Bogue Chitto, Miss., is seen Thursday, May, 7, 2026, after a tornado cut across the state. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)

People stand among debris at Gene's Mobile Home Supply, a trailer park in Bogue Chitto, Miss., Thursday, May, 7, 2026, after a tornado cut across the state. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A doll and other items are seen amid the destruction at Gene’s Mobile Home Supply, a trailer park in Bogue Chitto, Miss., on Thursday, May 7, 2026, after a tornado cut across the state. (Matt WIlliamson/Enterprise-Journal via AP)

A man stands among debris at Gene's Mobile Home Supply, a trailer park in Bogue Chitto, Miss., Thursday, May, 7, 2026, after a tornado cut across the state. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

People stand among debris at Gene's Mobile Home Supply, a trailer park in Bogue Chitto, Miss., Thursday, May, 7, 2026, after a tornado cut across the state. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this frame grab from video taken by WDAM, damaged trees and a house or structure following a storm that tore through part of Lamar County, Mississippi, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (WDAM via AP)

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A man accused of a firebomb attack that killed one person and injured a dozen others while they were demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman entered the pleas Thursday in Boulder County District Court. He now faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the attack in downtown Boulder last June 1.

Soliman’s attorneys revealed he would plead guilty in a Sunday court filing in a related federal case. Soliman has meanwhile pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty in the federal case, according to his attorneys.

Soliman initially pleaded not guilty in state court to murder and dozens of attempted murder and assault charges for throwing two Molotov cocktails at demonstrators at a pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, a city of 100,000 people northwest of Denver that’s home to the University of Colorado.

An 82-year-old woman who was injured in the attack later died. A dozen others were also injured.

Soliman is an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the U.S. illegally. Investigators allege he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”

Boulder Mayor Pro Tem Tara Winer said the victims included some of her close friends.

“It was a horrific attack,” Winer said by email this week. “Their lives were changed forever.”

Soliman’s federal attorneys have said in court filings the attack “was profoundly inconsistent” with Soliman’s prior conduct and “came as a total shock to his family.”

Soliman had been living with his family in a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs — about 97 miles (156 kilometers) away — at the time of the attack. He had moved to the U.S. from Kuwait in 2022 with his wife and their five children and worked in a series of low-paying jobs.

The couple divorced in April.

Investigators allege Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration at Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. He threw two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, “Free Palestine!”

Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.

Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. Soliman’s federal defense lawyers argue he should not have been charged with hate crimes because he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.

An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.

State prosecutors have identified 29 victims in the attack. Thirteen were physically injured. The others were nearby and considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, and Soliman has been charged with animal cruelty.

Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children spent 10 months in immigration detention until a federal judge in Texas ordered their release in April.

An immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay in the U.S. and issued a deportation order. But U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio allowed their release on the condition that El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring.

Soliman’s attorneys seek to block the family’s deportation until a judge determines they won’t need to be present for court proceedings in his federal case.

FILE - Law enforcement officials investigate after an attack on the Pearl Street Mall, June 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)

FILE - Bouquets of flowers stand along a makeshift memorial for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County courthouse on June 3, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)