Hostages safe after synagogue standoff ends; captor killed
COLLEYVILLE, Texas — Hostages who had been held for hours inside a Texas synagogue Saturday were safely rescued that night, Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted nearly 12 hours after the standoff began.
“Prayers answered. All hostages are out alive and safe,” Abbott tweeted late Saturday.
His message came not long after a bang and what sounded like gunfire were heard coming from inside the synagogue.
The hostage-taker was later declared dead, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. Details about the rescue and the man’s death were not immediately available.
At least four hostages were initially believed to be inside the synagogue, according to three law enforcement officials who were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The synagogue’s rabbi was believed to be among the hostages, one of the officials said. The hostage-taker claimed to be armed, but authorities had not confirmed that he was.
Authorities were still trying to discern a motive for the attack Saturday night.
The hostage-taker was heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist suspected of having ties to al-Qaida, the officials said. The hostage-taker also said he wanted to be able to speak with her, according to the officials. Siddiqui is in a federal prison in Texas.
The officials said investigators had not positively identified the hostage-taker by Saturday night.
A rabbi in New York City had received a call Saturday from the hostage-held rabbi in Colleyville, a law enforcement official said. The New York rabbi then called 911.
Police were first called to the synagogue around 11 a.m., and people were evacuated from the surrounding neighborhood soon after that, said Katie Chaumont, a spokesperson with the FBI’s Dallas office.
Saturday’s services were being livestreamed on the synagogue’s Facebook page for a time. Shortly before 2 p.m., a man could be heard saying, “You got to do something. I don’t want to see this guy dead.”
Moments later, the feed cut out. A Meta company spokesperson later confirmed that Facebook removed the video.
Multiple people heard the hostage-taker refer to Siddiqui as his “sister” on the livestream. However, Faizan Syed, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Dallas and Fort Worth, said Siddiqui’s brother, Mohammad Siddiqui, was not involved.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Saturday evening that President Joe Biden had been briefed about the situation and was receiving updates from senior officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he also was monitoring the situation closely. “We pray for the safety of the hostages and rescuers,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group, condemned the attack Saturday.
“This latest antisemitic attack at a house of worship is an unacceptable act of evil,” National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement. “We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community. … No cause can justify or excuse this crime.”
Siddiqui, who has advanced degrees from Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was sentenced in 2010 to 86 years in prison on charges that she assaulted and shot at U.S. Army officers after being detained in Afghanistan two years earlier.
Her prison sentence sparked anger in Pakistan among political leaders and her supporters, who viewed her as being victimized by the American criminal justice system.
In the years since, Pakistani officials have expressed interest in any sort of deal or swap that could result in her release from U.S. custody, and her case has continued to draw attention from supporters.
In 2018, for instance, an Ohio man was sentenced to 22 years in prison after prosecutors said he had planned to fly to Texas and attack the prison where Siddiqui is being held in an attempt to free her.