One dead, four freed in Texas synagogue standoff
COLLEYVILLE: All four people taken hostage in a more than 10-hour standoff at a Texas synagogue have been freed unharmed, police said late on Saturday, and their suspected captor is dead.
The siege in the small Texas town of Colleyville — in which the suspect was apparently demanding the release of a convicted terrorist — had sparked an outpouring of concern from Jewish groups in the United States as well as from the Israeli government.
Colleyville police chief Michael Miller told a news conference that a “rescue team breached the synagogue” on Saturday evening and rescued the three remaining hostages — all adults — being held inside. A first hostage had been released unharmed a few hours earlier.
“The suspect is deceased,” Mr Miller told reporters.
FBI Dallas Special Agent Matt DeSarno said the four hostages — who included a much-loved local rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker — did not need medical attention and would soon be reunited with their families.
“He did not harm them in any way,” Mr DeSarno said.
There were reports from journalists at the scene of a loud explosion and gunshots at the synagogue shortly before the press conference. That was more than 10 hours after police were alerted to the emergency at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, some 40 kilometers west of Dallas.
Officers evacuated the synagogue’s surroundings and cordoned off the area, the police force said.
ABC News reported that the hostagetaker was armed and had claimed to have bombs in unknown locations. That was not confirmed by police although Mr Miller said that “bomb techs are clearing the scene”.
Quoting a US official briefed on the matter, ABC reported the man was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui — a Pakistani scientist who in 2010 was sentenced to 86 years in prison for the attempted murder of US officers in Afghanistan.
She is currently being held at a prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
Mr DeSarno told the news conference the suspect had been identified, but did not disclose his identity.
The FBI special agent did not confirm the suspect’s demands, but said they were “focused on one issue that was not specifically threatening to the Jewish community” — and that he did not believe there was an ongoing threat.
Siddiqui’s lawyer said she “has absolutely no involvement” in the hostage situation in a statement to CNN.