Hostages at N. Texas synagogue are freed
None hurt, suspect dead after a 12-hour standoff
COLLEYVILLE — A man who held four hostages for hours inside a North Texas synagogue Saturday could be heard demanding the release of a Pakistani neuroscientist who once lived in Houston and was convicted of trying to kill U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan.
In an operation that involved more than 200 officers, FBI agents rescued the hostages from the Congregation Beth Israel and reported that the suspect was dead late Saturday.
“Prayers answered. All hostages are out alive and safe,” Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted.
Abbott’s tweet came not long after a loud bang and what sounded like gunfire was heard coming from the
synagogue. The hostagetaker was later declared dead, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. Details of the rescue or the man’s death were not immediately released.
Authorities are still trying to discern a precise motive for the attack. The hostagetaker, whose name was not released Saturday, was heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani suspected of having ties to al-Qaida, who was convicted of trying to kill U.S. military officers while in custody in Afghanistan, the officials said. He also said he wanted to be able to speak with the woman, who is in federal prison in North Texas.
The FBI late Saturday said the man was specifically focused on an issue not directly connected to the Jewish community.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno said there was no immediate indication that the man had connections to any broader plan but that the agency’s investigation “will have global reach.”
Police were first called to the synagogue around 11 a.m. as a livestream on the synagogue’s Facebook page revealed that an angry man disrupted the services. Shortly before 2 p.m., the man said, “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, but Faizan Syed, the executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations in Dallas Fort-Worth Texas, said Siddiqui’s brother, Mohammad, was not involved. Syed said CAIR’s support and prayers were with the people being held in the synagogue.
Texas resident Victoria Francis said she watched about an hour of the livestream before it cut out. She said she heard the man rant against America and claim he had a bomb.
“He was just all over the map. He was pretty irritated, and the more irritated he got, he’d make more threats, like ‘I’m the guy with the bomb. If you make a mistake, this is all on you.’ And he’d laugh at that,” she said. “He was clearly in extreme distress.”
Francis, who grew up near Colleyville, an affluent suburb of about 26,000 people roughly 15 miles northeast of Fort Worth, tuned in after she read about the hostage situation. She said it sounded like the man was talking to the police department on the phone, with the rabbi and another person trying to help with the negotiations.
When the livestream cut out, the man was getting pretty irate, Francis said.
“It’s a scary situation. I’m hopeful it ends the best way it can, obviously with no one hurt,” she said. “Especially in this area, you never think something like this is going to hit home until it does.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Saturday evening that President Joe Biden had been briefed and was receiving updates from senior officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he was monitoring the situation closely.
“We pray for the safety of the hostages and rescuers,” he wrote on Twitter.
After moving to the U.S., Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist, briefly attended the University of Houston in the 1990s.
Her brother still lives in the Houston area, while other relatives have since returned to Pakistan, Siddiqui’s lawyer, Marwa Elbially said.
“Her family has never been involved in violent acts,” Elbially said. “I feel so bad for this family — they’ve been through so much over the years.”
Elbially said that the man who took hostages likely “lost his mind.”
John Floyd, who represents Siddiqui’s brother and is the board chair for Houston’s Council on AmericanIslamic Relations, condemned the hostage-taking as an “antisemitic attack against a house of worship.”
“We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community, and we pray that law enforcement authorities are able to swiftly free the hostages and bring them to safety,” Floyd said in a statement.
He reiterated that the hostage-taker is not Siddiqui’s brother.
“We want the hostagetaker to know that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and her family strongly condemn this act and do not stand by you. Dr. Aafia’s family has always stood firm in advocating for the release of their sister from incarceration by legal and non-violent means only,” Floyd continued.
Siddiqui moved to Houston in the 1980s to be near her brother and attended the University of Houston for at least a semester starting in 1990 before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to complete her bachelor’s degree. She returned to Pakistan in 2002.
Federal agents in 2003 branded her a terrorist sympathizer with ties to al-Qaida after 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed reportedly mentioned her name during an interrogation, according to news reports from then. The tip sparked a manhunt, and after her capture, she tried killing U.S. soldiers while in custody in Afghanistan.
She was sentenced in 2010 to serve 86 years in prison.
Elbially said Siddiqui’s case has garnered a lot of attention in Pakistan over the years “as a case of extreme injustice.”
Siddiqui in September sued the federal Bureau of Prisons over medical and other records related to a July incident in which another prisoner allegedly hit her in the face with a hot coffeefilled mug and then beat her, court documents show.
As the hostage situation unfolded, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said he dispatched extra patrols to local synagogues and other houses of worship.
Synagogue leaders in Houston addressed concerned congregants with prayers and information about safety measures. In a letter posted online, Rabbi David Lyon of Beth Israel in Meyerland reminded congregants of how regularly — daily — officers monitor the campus.
Faith leaders admonished all violence that disrupts prayer.
“Synagogues, like all places of worship, should be sanctuaries of safety, where the only vulnerability we face is opening our hearts to the Holy One,” Beth Shalom of The Woodlands said in a Facebook post.