TEXAS HOSTAGE TAKER WAS KNOWN TO U.K. INTELLIGENCE

The British man who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue over the weekend before being killed was known to British intelligence services, British and U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The man, whom the FBI identified as Malik Faisal Akram, 44, had been on the watch list of Britain’s MI5 security service as a “subject of interest,” according to a British official who requested anonymity. The British intelligence agency started a brief investigation into Akram in the second half of 2020, and closed it after reaching the assessment that there was no indication of any terrorist threat at that time, the official said.

That account was also revealed by a U.S. official briefed on the matter, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

The details of the investigation were reported earlier by the BBC and The Guardian.

Akram, originally from the northern British town of Blackburn, had arrived in the United States just before the New Year after leaving Britain on Dec. 29, but much is still unknown about why he targeted the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, during a Saturday morning service. Britain’s Home Office declined to comment on the case or confirm the BBC report on the investigation.

Gulbar Akram, Akram’s brother, has described his sibling as mentally unwell and said he also had a criminal past and was known to British police. He questioned how his brother was allowed to enter the U.S., but he maintained that he did not believe his brother was antisemitic.

The family said they had been cooperating with British authorities, and Gulbar Akram spoke with his brother during the 11-hour standoff, trying to persuade him to release the hostages and turn himself in.

Two teenagers were arrested Sunday in Manchester “as part of the ongoing investigation into the attack that took place at a Synagogue in Texas,” the Greater Manchester Police said in a statement. They were later released without charge.