Collieville (Texas) : An FBI hostage rescue team raided a synagogue in Collieville, Texas on Saturday night to free the three remaining hostages of a gunman who had disrupted a religious service and a standoff with police more than 10 hours earlier. had started.
Colleyville Police Chief Michael Miller told a news conference that all the hostages were released on Saturday night and the gunman had died.
Officials said the gunman initially took four people, including the rabbi, hostage at the Beth Israel Congregation. One hostage was released safely six hours later.
Reporters said they heard explosions, possibly flashbangs and gunshots, shortly before Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared the crisis was over.
“Prayers answered. All hostages are alive and well,” Abbott said on Twitter. The FBI said they had confirmed the gunman’s identity but said they would not reveal it yet. The FBI declined to confirm his cause of death, saying it was still under investigation.
The UK Foreign Office confirmed the death of a British man in Texas when asked to respond to a Sky News report that the gunman was a British national. The Foreign Office did not explicitly say that the dead Briton was the gunman.
The Colleyville Police Department said it first responded to the synagogue with SWAT teams in response to emergency calls beginning at around 10:41 a.m. during the Shabbat service, which was being broadcast online. FBI negotiators soon contacted the man, who said he wanted to speak to a woman in a federal prison.
No one was reported injured among the hostages.
In the first few hours, the man could be heard having a one-sided conversation in the form of a phone call during a Facebook livestream of the service of the Reformed Jewish synagogue in Colville, which is about 16 miles (26 km) northeast. of Fort Worth. The livestream cut to around 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT).
‘Courageous Deed’
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that before the livestream ended, the man could be heard shouting and talking about Dharma and his sister. The newspaper said the man could be heard repeatedly saying that he did not want to see anyone hurt and believed he was about to die.
President Joe Biden, who was briefed about the crisis, praised the “courageous act” of state, local and federal law enforcement in freeing the hostages.
“We will learn much more about the hostage taker’s motives in the days to come. But let me make it clear to anyone who intends to spread hatred – we stand against the rise of anti-Semitism and extremism in this country. Will be.” He said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he was praying for the safety of the hostages.
Barry Klompus, a member of the congregation since it opened in 1999, said he tuned into the livestream.
“It was terrifying to hear and see,” Klompus said in a telephone interview.
A US official with knowledge of the case told ABC News that the hostage taker claimed to be the brother of Pakistani neuroscientist Afiya Siddiqui, who was sentenced to 86 years in US prison for 2010 for shooting at soldiers and FBI agents. is serving his sentence, and he demanded that he be released.
Siddiqui is being held in a federal prison in the Fort Worth area. Marwa Elbial, a lawyer representing Siddiqui, told CNN in a statement that the man was not Siddiqui’s brother. He asked the man to release the hostages, saying Siddiqui’s family condemned his “heinous” actions.
The American Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), condemned the man’s actions.
“This latest anti-Semitic attack on Jewish Americans worshiping in a synagogue is pure evil,” CAIR said in a statement.
Klompus said he was not aware of any significant past threats to the congregation.
“We don’t have a security officer on staff, but we have a very good relationship with the local police,” he said.
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