Texas rabbi threw chair at synagogue hostage-taker, escaped with two others
A rabbi held hostage with two others in a Texas synagogue said Monday they managed to escape after throwing a chair at their captor and then making a run for it.
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker shared his account of the harrowing ordeal at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, on “CBS Mornings.” The hostage-taker, Malik Faisal Akram, died, though authorities investigating the “terrorism-related matter” have not said whether he was shot or killed himself.
Towards the end of the 11-hour standoff, Akram, 44, became increasingly erratic, Cytron-Walker said.
Akram ranted on a livestream about seeking the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist and suspected Al Qaeda associate serving 86 years in a Fort Worth prison for shooting at U.S. military officers while in custody in Afghanistan.
Akram eventually seemed to realize he “wasn’t getting what he wanted,” Cytron-Walker said.
“It didn’t look good,” he said. “It didn’t sound good. We were terrified.”
The rabbi and two other hostages had congregated near an exit, waiting for an opportunity to escape. Akram had released a fourth hostage unharmed earlier in the evening.
“I told them to go, I threw a chair at the gunman and I headed for the door,” Cytron-Walker said. “And all three of us were able to get out without even a shot being fired.”
Another hostage, Jeffrey Cohen, wrote on Facebook that moments earlier, Akram had demanded the hostages get on their knees. Cohen recalled mouthing the word “no” moments before Cytron-Walker hurled the chair.
“First of all, we escaped. We weren’t released or freed,” Cohen wrote.
The confrontation began on Saturday at 11 a.m. when the rabbi welcomed the man who would become his captor into the synagogue and prayed with him.
“When I took him in, I stayed with him,” Cytron-Walker said. “Making tea was an opportunity to talk with him. In that moment, I didn’t hear anything suspicious.”
Texas rabbi held hostage in synagogue for 11 hours ‘grateful to be alive’
Then the rabbi heard a click.
“It could have been anything, but turns out it was his gun,” he said.
The rabbi credited training offered by law enforcement and the Anti-Defamation League for helping him figure out how to escape.
“They really teach you in those moments that when your life is threatened, you need to do whatever you can to get to safety. You need to do whatever you can to get out,” he said.
“It was terrifying, it was overwhelming and we’re still processing,” he added. “It’s been a lot. It’s completely overwhelming.”
FBI investigating Texas synagogue hostage situation as terrorism
The investigation into the hostage situation stretched into England, where British police announced Sunday that two teenagers had been arrested. The relationship between the suspects and Akram, a British national, was unclear.
Supporters of Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist serving a lengthy prison sentence, said Akram had no connection to her or efforts to win her release. Siddiqui’s legal counsel, told the Daily News Sunday that Akram has “no connection with the family whatsoever” and “he has also no connection to the Free Aafia movement inside the US.”
The suspect was dead when law enforcement entered the building, but it’s unclear if he was killed by FBI agents or died by suicide.
Akram was from Blackburn, an industrial city in northwest England, according to The Associated Press. His family said he’d been “suffering from mental health issues.”
“We would also like to add that any attack on any human being, be it a Jew, Christian or Muslim, etc. is wrong and should always be condemned,” his brother, Gulbar Akram, wrote online.
President Biden had called the hostage-taking an act of terror. Speaking in Philadelphia on Sunday, he said Akram allegedly purchased a weapon on the streets.
With News Wire Services
