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Investigators reportedly assessed the hostage-taker as “emotionally unstable”. He has no criminal record in federal courts. London’s Metropolitan Police, which handles terrorism cases across the UK, said “liaising with US authorities… regarding the incident in Texas”.Īccording to CBS News, Akram is not a US citizen and arrived in the country about two weeks ago via JFK International Airport in New York City. The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that it was “aware of the death of a British man in Texas and in contact with the local authorities”.
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“At this time, there is no indication that other individuals are involved,” the agency said. A bulletin from the FBI named the man as Malik Faisal Akram, a British citizen from Blackburn, Lancashire. His way of speaking – peppered with “yeah?” and “bro” and “man” used like punctuation – sounded strangely familiar to British reporters. They were spoken by an unseen man, apparently the hostage taker negotiating with police officers over the phone. Those were among the last words captured from the Beth Israel livestream before it was removed by Facebook. “I don’t wanna hurt ’em, yeah? Are you listening?” So what do we know about Malik Faisal Akram and his motives? Reporters at the scene said they heard gunfire and explosions, and a man claiming to be Akram’s brother said he was “shot and killed” in a firefight. A Facebook livestream of the Shabbat service was left running at first, and remote viewers heard him negotiating with police.įinally a hostage rescue team secured the prisoners, and Akram was killed, though it’s not clear exactly how. How did a British man from Blackburn end up holding four people hostage in a synagogue in Texas? That is the question both UK and US authorities are now trying to answer after the FBI named Malik Faisal Akram as Saturday’s hostage-taker.Īkram, 44, held the congregants at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, on the outskirts of Fort Worth, for about ten hours on Saturday.