Texas Synagogue Crisis Ends as Four Hostages Freed With Taker Shot Dead

Four hostages were taken by the man who stormed the building ‘armed with backpacks of explosives’ have been released after the man was shot dead.

He held the hostages, including Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, trapped inside the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, approximately 27 miles from Dallas, for about 10 hours before the hostages were reported free and safe. 

Dramatic footage revealed the moment two hostages ran out of the temple. The suspect can be seen popping out of the door as he chases after them with a gun, but he quickly retreats back inside, closing the door after spotting the nearby SWAT team. 

Dozens of agents then breach the synagogue as gunshots can be heard.   

FBI special agent Matt Desarno said the agency’s Hostage Rescue Team, who were flown in from Quantico in Virginia, entered the synagogue at around 9pm CST (3am GMT), freed the hostages and killed the suspect.

He said the suspect appeared to be ‘singularly focused on one issue and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community’.

Mr Desarno added that the investigation is ongoing and they will be working with London police on the case. The suspect appeared to have a British accent when he spoke during the synagogue’s livestream.

Colleyville Police Chief Michael Miller said bomb technicians are still active at the scene as police investigate the suspect’s claims of having explosives inside the temple. 

Officials said they have identified the suspect, but will not release his name yet or motive.

The suspect had demanded the release of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqu – known as Lady Al Qaeda – who, police say, he referred to as his ‘sister.’

However, a lawyer representing the woman’s brother denied he was involved after networks reported it was him.   

Siddiqui was jailed for 86 years after being arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 for the attempted murder of a U.S. Army captain. The Pakistani-born neuroscientist was found with two kilos of poison sodium cyanide and plans for chemical attacks on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.  

From inside the Texas synagogue, the assailant told a SWAT team: ‘If anyone tries to enter this building, I’m telling you…everyone will die.’ 

He was caught on the synagogue’s Sabbath livestream, before it was cut off at 2pm CST, saying: ‘I’m going to die. Don’t cry about me’

‘Are you listening? I am going to die,’ he repeated over and over.  

The suspected terrorist spoke with a New York City rabbi earlier Saturday who was being interviewed by the FBI. He bizarrely demanded the female rabbi release Aafia. 

The suspect had released one hostage earlier in the night, and at around 9pm CST (3am GMT), a loud bang was heard, followed by several gunshots, before the dramatic footage showed two of the remaining three hostages running out of the temple. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed all four hostages were out ‘alive and safe’, adding: ‘Prayers answered.’ 

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and New York City Mayor Eric Adams had deployed additional patrol units at synagogues as did other major cities, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Police say there is no current threat to the general public.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Desarno said: ‘We do believe from our engagement with this suspect that he was singularly focused on one issue and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community. 

‘We are continuing to work to find motive and we will continue on that path.

‘In terms of the resolution of the incident, the hostage taker is deceased and we will conduct an independent investigation – my evidence response team will be here to process the scene and a team from Washington will be here to conduct an independent investigation of the shooting incident.’

Colleyville, Texas, police were conducting SWAT operations and local residents were told to evacuate the area. 

About 200 local, state and federal law enforcement officers are assisting the scene as authorities set up by a nearby middle school, according to WFAA. The school is around the corner from the synagogue. 

The White House is also ‘closely monitoring’ the situation, according to ABC’s Erielle Reshef. 

Aafia’s attorney, Marwa Elbially, told CNN by phone that her client has no involvement in the hostage situation. 

‘She does not want any violence perpetrated against any human being, especially in her name,’ Elbially said. 

‘It obviously has nothing to do with Dr. Siddiqui or her family.’ 

Jonh Floyd, of the Houston branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also confirmed Aafia’s family was not involved in the current hostage situation, and that they condemn the suspect’s actions. 

‘We want the hostage-taker to know that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and her family strongly condemn this act and do not stand by you,’ Floyd wrote in a statement directed at the hostage taker.  

‘We want the assailant to know that his actions are wicked and directly undermine those of us who are seeking justice for Dr. Aafia.’ 

Lawyer Annette Lamoreaux who represents Siddiqui’s biological brother Mohammad, a Houston architect, told Mail Online: ‘The gunman is most definitely not her biological brother. 

‘I spoke to Mohammad an hour ago and he is very upset to be implicated in this attack by the hostage-taker.’ 

Aafia, now 49, was jailed for 86 years after being arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 for the attempted murder of a US army captain.

The Pakistani-born neuroscientist was found with two kilos of poison sodium cyanide and plans for chemical attacks on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.

She was handed to the Americans and convicted of attempted murder two years later in a US court.

But her hatred for the US was so strong that during her interrogation she grabbed a rifle from one of her guards and shot at them shouting: ‘Death to Americans.’

She came to the US in 1991 and won a partial scholarship to MIT, where she was a biology major. 

Siddiqui was sent by her neurosurgeon father from Pakistan to study in the U.S. on her own and won a partial scholarship to study at the prestigious Cambridge school.

She arrived there in 1991 having been living with her brother in Texas, for a year where she studied at the University of Houston and gave regular speeches on Islam.

During one she told the crowd: ‘The hijab is not a restriction. It allows a woman to be judged by her content, not by her packaging, by what is written on the pages, not the pretty artwork on the cover’

In 1993, she wanted to do ‘something to help our Muslim brothers and sisters’ even if it meant breaking the law.

That same year, as she and some friends debated how to raise money for Muslims being killed during the Bosnian War, one of them joked that they didn’t want to go on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. 

She then completed a 10-hour NRA shooting course at Braintree Rifle & Pistol Club on her own and urged other Muslims to join her. 

She moved to Texas to be near her brother, the reported hostage taker, who is listed as an architect in Houston.

The mother of three was radicalized after the 9/11 terror attacks, divorcing her husband and moving back to Pakistan, where she remarried Ammar Al-Baluchi, the nephew of 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

What happened in Pakistan before her arrest is unclear and even during her U.S. trial judge Richard Berman said he did not know what she was doing.

But even now such is her importance as a symbol of defiance to the West that Islamic State fighters publicly stated they wanted to swap her for James Foley, the American photojournalist they executed earlier this year.

Siddiqui declined to be interviewed when approached by the Boston Globe at the Federal Prison in Fort Worth, Texas, where she is being held.    

She is serving an 86-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, about 25 miles from the hostage site at the Texas temple.

During her trial, Aafia demanded that every jury member get DNA tested to see if they were Jewish.

‘I have a feeling everyone here is them [Jews], subject [them] to genetic testing… They should be excluded if you want to be fair,’ she told a federal judge in 2010.

A Colleyville spokesperson told CNN: ‘The FBI negotiators are the ones who have contact with the person in the building.’ 

Leaders from the Islamic Center of Southlake, who have worked closely with Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker to help unite the faithful in the Dallas-Fort Worth area came out to the scene to denounce the attack and pray for their friend. 

‘We want to see him again as soon as possible,’ said Shahzad Mahmud, the former president of the Islamic Center. 

‘We just want to make sure he goes back to his family,’ 

The Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is also ‘closely monitoring’ the situation. 

He wrote on Twitter: ‘I am closely monitoring the hostage situation taking place in Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. 

‘We pray for the safety of the hostage and rescuers.’ 

US Press Secretary Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter that President Joe Biden has also been briefed on the situation. 

‘He will continue to receive updates from his senior team as the situation develops. 

‘Senior members of the national security team are also in touch with federal law enforcement leadership,’ Psaki wrote. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot said that he is providing the state’s full assistance to Colleyville to help ensure all the hostages are released safely. 

In an update, Mr Abbot said: ‘Prayers answered. All hostages are out alive and safe.’ 

Social media users have been offering prayers for Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, but his condition and location are unknown. 

Congregation Beth Israel is a Reform Jewish synagogue in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, which has about 70,000 Jewish people, one of the largest communities in the state.