US authorities on Sunday launched an “international scope” investigation into the Briton who died the day before after holding several people hostage for ten hours in a Texas synagogue, an “act of terrorism” denounced by Joe Biden and the United Kingdom .
The President of the United States confirmed that the suspect, identified by the FBI as British national Malik Faisal Akram, 44, had “insisted on obtaining the release of someone who has been in prison for ten years”, and had “made anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments.”
According to several American media, he demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist sentenced in 2010 by a federal court in New York to 86 years in prison for having tried to shoot American soldiers while she was detained in Afghanistan.
“It was an act of terrorism,” insisted Joe Biden.
The United Kingdom also condemned, through its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liz Truss, “this act of terrorism and anti-Semitism”, ensuring that it was “alongside the United States”.
The American president explained that the hostage taker had bought his weapons “on the street”. And he revealed that he “apparently had no bombs” contrary to what he had claimed during the events.
“At this stage, there is no indication of the involvement of anyone else,” US Federal Police said in a statement.
Hostages safe and sound
The four hostages were all released unharmed on Saturday evening.
Among them was a respected local rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, who said that “the gunman had become increasingly aggressive and threatening in the last hour of the hostage crisis.”
It ended with a police intervention, a loud bang and gunshots in the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in Colleyville, a town of about 23,000 people about 40 miles from Dallas. And by the death of the suspect – without it being known at this stage if he committed suicide or if he was shot dead by the police.
North West England Counter Terrorism Police confirmed in a statement that Malik Faisal Akram is from the Blackburn area of Lancashire.
On the Blackburn Muslim Community Facebook page, a man identifying as his brother said he “suffered from mental health issues” and was “shot and killed”. “There was nothing we could have said to him or done that would have convinced him to turn himself in,” said the man, who says he was “until the early hours in liaison with Faisal, the negotiators, the FBI “.
“We will investigate the hostage taker and his contacts,” in an “international scope” investigation, Dallas FBI Special Agent Matt DeSarno said.
Adding to the spectacularity of the hostage-taking, a live broadcast of the religious service on Facebook was in progress when the kidnapper burst in.
” I will die “
“There is something wrong with America,” the man said, according to the broadcast before it was interrupted.
“I’m going to die,” he also said, repeatedly asking an unidentified caller that “his sister” be on the phone to him.
Aafia Siddiqui is currently being held in a prison hospital in Fort Worth, near Dallas.
She was the first woman to be suspected by the United States of links with al-Qaeda, the Islamist network responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and against the Pentagon, which had earned her the nickname “Lady al -Qaeda”.
It is one of the safest cities in North Texas. It’s amazing.
She “is absolutely not involved” in the hostage-taking, however, assured CNN in a statement to her lawyer. She confirmed that the man was not her client’s brother.
Experts have pointed out that the word used by the man in Arabic was to be taken figuratively and meant “sister in the Islamic faith”.
President Biden has pledged to “confront anti-Semitism”. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also felt that it was necessary “to continue to fight it throughout the world”.
Sunday, in Colleyville, emotion prevailed in this very quiet residential area.
“It’s one of the safest cities in North Texas,” said Austin Newell, 33, owner of the North Texas Kings baseball club, whose field is opposite the synagogue. “It’s amazing. »
For Bob Fitzgerald, 91, who goes to mass at the neighborhood Baptist church, “it had to end like this, this guy didn’t deserve to live”.