The Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis was a 2022 incident where a 44-year-old man armed with a pistol took four people hostage in a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, United States.
The incident occurred on January 15, 2022, when Malik Akram, a British Pakistani man, entered the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue during a Sabbath service. Hostage negotiations ensued, during which Akram demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national and alleged al-Qaeda operative imprisoned in nearby Fort Worth for attempted murder and other crimes. He released one hostage after six hours, and the remaining three hostages escaped eleven hours into the standoff. Tactical officers from the FBI Hostage Rescue Team subsequently entered the synagogue and fatally shot Akram.
Background
Congregation Beth Israel Congregation Beth Israel is a Reform Jewish synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, a suburb northeast of Fort Worth in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The congregation was initially a chavurah established in 1999 with 25 families; a religious school with 75 children was founded shortly afterward. After in its early years holding its services at rented facilities, Congregation Beth Israel opened a synagogue of its own in 2004. The congregation is smaller than other Jewish congregations in the area; at the time of the incident, the congregation had around 140 members. The synagogue's rabbi at the time of the crisis was Charlie Cytron-Walker, originally from Lansing, Michigan. He became the congregation's rabbi in 2006, and he is known for his work in interfaith relations. Cytron-Walker was already set to leave the congregation in June 2022 when the incident occurred.
Clergy and staff at the synagogue had taken courses for a number of years through the FBI, the Anti-Defamation League, the Colleyville Police Department, and Secure Community Network in order to prepare for the possibility of an intruder. Cytron-Walker credited the information learned in the courses with saving the hostages' lives.
Perpetrator Malik Faisal Akram (March 3, 1977 – January 15, 2022) was a 44-year-old British citizen originally from Blackburn, Lancashire, in North West England. He was born to a family originally from Jhelum, a city in Pakistani Punjab. As a youth, Akram was expelled from school for getting involved in fights, and his parents subsequently sent him to a military school in Pakistan. During negotiations, he said that he had six children. A brother of Akram said that he had undiagnosed mental health issues that were well known to the Blackburn community, and that three months prior to the incident, a younger sibling had died. He also said that Akram did not harbor any hatred towards Jewish people in the past and that "religious nuts" had radicalized his brother in 2003.
In September 2001, Akram was banned from Blackburn's magistrates' court for threatening staff on a number of occasions, including on days when he was not due in court. His final threat was made on September 12, when he said that he wished that a court usher had been killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks the day before. Akram had a criminal record in the UK, which included a drug deal-linked assault, violent disorder, and driving offenses. A community organizer in Blackburn said that Akram served a custodial sentence in England.
The Times of London reported that Akram had been referred to Prevent, a voluntary British counter-radicalization program, in 2016 and 2019 amid concerns about his views; it was unclear whether Akram took part in the program. After he spent six months in Pakistan in 2020, Akram was investigated by the MI5, the British security service. He was on a watchlist as a "subject of interest" in a four-week MI5 "short lead investigation"; by 2021, he was moved to a "former subject of interest" list, having been no longer considered a terrorist threat. Akram was not on any U.S. watchlists.
Aafia Siddiqui
Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani national and alleged al-Qaeda operative, formerly dubbed "Lady al-Qaeda". She is currently being held in the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, a women's federal prison in Fort Worth, while serving an 86-year sentence for attempted murder and other crimes. After being on the U.S. most wanted fugitives list for five years, Siddiqui was arrested in 2008 by Afghan police in Afghanistan, carrying handwritten notes plotting a "mass casualty attack", along with explosive and poisonous substances, and a list of possible targets in New York City and methods.
According to U.S. authorities, in 2001, Siddiqui married Ammar al-Baluchi, an accused al-Qaeda member and the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the ringleader of the September 11 attacks. Siddiqui was convicted in a jury trial in a U.S. federal court in 2010 of attempting to kill a U.S. Army captain while in Afghan custody; armed assault; using and carrying a firearm; and three counts of assault on U.S. officers and employees.
For years, Siddiqui has been a cause célèbre within Islamist and Islamic extremist militant circles and in Pakistan, where she is depicted as a martyr and heroine. The Islamist terrorist groups al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and the Islamic State (Daesh) have all unsuccessfully tried to negotiate Siddiqui's release at various times, as a condition for them releasing foreign hostages. The Islamic State sought to trade kidnapped American journalist James Foley for her; after the U.S. government declined, the Islamic State beheaded Foley.
During her trial, Siddiqui made various antisemitic statements and asked that there not be any Jewish people on the jury, going so far as to demand genetic tests on jurors at one point, to determine if they were Jewish. She later claimed she was not against all "Israeli Americans". After her sentencing by the U.S. court for a crime against Americans, she said: "This is a verdict coming from Israel and not from America. That's where the anger belongs."
According to The Daily Telegraph, Congregation Beth Israel is the nearest synagogue to where Siddiqui is being held.
Events Akram enters the U.S. and acquires weapon Akram entered the U.S. from the United Kingdom on December 27, 2021, two weeks prior to the incident, at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, listing a Queens hotel as his local address on a customs form. He was checked against law enforcement databases and did not raise any red flags. Investigators believe that Akram lied on his tourist visa waiver, which requires applicants to disclose criminal records.
Akram then traveled to Dallas, Texas, apparently by air on December 31, 2021, and intermittently stayed in at least two local homeless shelters between January 2 and 11. While there, he was described, by an official at one of the shelters, as quiet and not being there long enough to build any relationships. On video dated January 2, Akram was captured being dropped off at one of the shelters by an unknown individual who stayed with him at the shelter for fifteen minutes and hugged him before departing. Investigators determined that Akram purchased a Taurus G2C handgun on the street from someone he met at the Union Gospel Mission Dallas, one of the shelters where he stayed. The handgun's last legal sale was recorded in early 2020, and it was reported stolen later that year.
On January 5, Akram arrived at the Islamic Center of Irving to pray. He became belligerent when he was told he could not sleep inside the building due to city ordinances and mosque policy, and he was kicked out of the mosque. Mosque officials described him as behaving erratically, but without any indication of potential violence. Akram returned the next day to apologize, and the mosque allowed him to pray inside; officials said that he was like a different person on that day and that his demeanor was a "flip flop in the behavior in the extremes". His movements on January 12–15 were unclear.
Hostage crisis begins On the morning of January 15, 2022, Akram visited a Starbucks located less than a mile away from the Congregation Beth Israel, then he traveled to the synagogue by bicycle. At around 10:00 a.m., Akram entered Beth Israel by knocking on a locked glass door and posing as a homeless man seeking shelter. He was welcomed inside by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who made him a cup of hot tea. Cytron-Walker said after his rescue that he was not initially suspicious of Akram, but he was "curious" after some of his story did not add up. Cytron-Walker introduced Akram to Jeffrey R Cohen, the vice president on the synagogue's board of trustees, who said Akram was calm and on the phone at the time.
During Sabbath prayer, Cytron-Walker turned his back on the congregation to pray towards Jerusalem, and he then heard a click, which turned out to be Akram's pistol. A yelling Akram then began taking hostages in the synagogue. A total of four hostages, including Cytron-Walker and Cohen, were held captive. As he was being taken hostage, Jeffrey R Cohen secretly dialed 9-1-1 and placed his phone down on its screen before moving as commanded. The Colleyville Police Department first received a 9-1-1 call reporting the situation at 10:41 a.m., and an officer responded to the scene minutes later.
A report that hostages had been taken at Congregation Beth Israel was made public at around 11:30 a.m. via a tweet from the Colleyville Police Department, which said a SWAT team was on the scene. Police were later assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Law enforcement evacuated the neighborhood in the vicinity of the crime scene. Ultimately, more than 200 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers and agents responded to the scene, including a team of around 70 FBI hostage negotiators and rescue operatives who flew in from Quantico, Virginia.
A livestream of the synagogue's services on its Facebook page streamed the ongoing situation, including the forceful taking of hostages. In the livestream, Akram could be heard speaking to authorities, who attempted to negotiate with him. At one point, Akram claimed (apparently falsely) to have a bomb. The livestream also streamed Akram saying that he had flown to the city where Siddiqui was imprisoned with the intent of taking hostages. He also said that he chose to take hostages in a synagogue because the U.S. "only cares about Jewish lives" and because "Jews control the world. Jews control the media. Jews control the banks."
Negotiations During the incident, Akram demanded that Siddiqui be released from prison and referred to her as "sister". He believed Siddiqui was "framed". Siddiqui's lawyer said her client had no involvement in the incident. One of Akram's brothers was involved in the negotiations, speaking to his brother from a Blackburn Greenbank police station, having been taken to its incident room to liaise with the FBI and negotiators. He later wrote that their whole family condemned Akram's actions. The brother urged him to release the hostages and surrender to police, but Akram said that he came to the synagogue with the intent to die, telling his brother that he intended to "go down as a martyr" and would be "coming back in a body bag".
A number of local faith leaders rushed to the synagogue to provide support, including prominent American Muslim imam and activist, Omar Suleiman, who offered to assist with hostage negotiations.