A6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19 , 2022
BY BRYAN PIETSCHThey had been held hostage for
11 hours inside their Texas syna-
gogue when their frustrated cap-
tor hung up with negotiators and
told them to kneel.
The suspect, Malik Faisal
Akram, “had been going all day,”
Jeffrey Cohen, one of the four
hostages held Saturday at Con-
gregation Beth Israel, said in an
interview with The Washington
Post. Akram had complained to
the hostages that he was cold and
that he hadn’t eaten anything
except potato chips.
Police were called about 11 a.m.
after Akram, armed with a gun
and explosives, captured Rabbi
Charlie Cytron-Walker, Cohen
and two other congregants of
Beth Israel, a tightknit communi-
ty of about 155 families in
C olleyville, Tex., a suburb of Fort
Worth and Dallas. One hostage,
an older man, was released be-
fore the others.
The three remaining hostages
made a pact that they would not
try to escape individually, leaving
the others to deal with the reper-
cussions. They would all make it
out alive together.
Instead of kneeling as Akram
had ordered them, Cohen, 57, said
he de fied the attacker ’s demand.
He stood up and mouthed the
word “no,” looking Akram
straight in the eyes.
“I was not going to let him
assassinate us,” Cohen said. “I
was not going to beg for my life
and just have him kill us.”
Rather than shooting Cohen,
Akram backed down. He turned
around and put his gun down to
pour some soda, Cohen said.
Cytron- Walker, the rabbi,
seized on the moment, yelling
“run” and throwing a chair at
Akram as the three hostages ran
out. They had subtly oriented
themselves toward the path of an
exit throughout the day, waiting
for the right time to escape.
Cohen and Cytron-Walker ,
along with other members of the
congregation, had received train-
ing on how to manage potential
threats — one of the reasons, they
say, they came out alive.
Stil l, Cohen said, “I really
thou ght we ’d never use it.”
Their congregation and
many others across the country
had sought such training
amid heightened concerns of
a ntisemitic attacks following the
massacre at the Tree of Life
synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018
that le ft 11 people dead. Their
training addressed topics such as
how to escape a building in an
emergency, how to counteract
threats, the need to be aware of
one’s surroundings, and proto-
cols for letting people into a
synagogue.
Beth Israel was more active in
preparing for potential security
threats than many other congre-
gations, said Cheryl Drazin, the
Dallas-based vice president of the
Anti-Defamation League’s cen-
tral division. Security was “very
much a part of the congregation-
al culture” at Beth Israel, she said,
noting that the congregation of-
ten opened programs by an-
nouncing where the exits were.
Cytron-Walker had let Akram
in from the cold, Cohen said. The
rabbi offered the man a warm
place to stay, a cup of tea and an
Uber ride to a shelter. Cohen had
the situational training in mind
when he walked into the syna-
gogue and first saw Akram.
Akram didn’t initially appear to
be a threat when they met, Cohensaid: He didn’t show the telltale
signs such as darting eyes or
nervous fidgeting.
Cohen had attended school in
Pittsburgh, where he walked past
the Tree of Life synagogue regu-
larly. The attack there “really
touched a thread,” Cohen said, “soI paid attention.” He took the
training “very seriously,” he said.
The training was provided by
the Secure Community Netw ork,
a nonprofit group dedicated to
protecting the Jewish community
in the United States.
“I think the reality for us is thatthis can happen any day, any-
where,” the group’s chief execu-
tive, Michael Masters, said in a
news conference after the ordeal.
“Every time we have responded to
an incident... w e have heard
someone utter the phrase, ‘I nev-
er thought it could happen here.’
We have to move beyond that
mind-set. We have to understand
that it can happen. And we need
to be prepared and vigilant for it
to happen.” Masters said he was
concerned about potential “copy-
cat” attacks; law enforcement
personnel around the country
had escalated patrols near syna-
gogues and other Jewish commu-
nities after Saturday’s standoff.
Another member of the con-
gregation who was not held hos-
tage, Devorah Titunik, praised
the training, telling The Post that
while “Rabbi Charlie” was known
for his calm demeanor, she wasn’t
surprised that he threw a chair at
Akram. “He saw an opportunity
to get them out of there and took
it,” she said. “I think part of that
comes from the training.”
After the congregants fled the
synagogue, Akram followed them
out before darting back into the
building, Cohen said. The escap-
ees took cover behind a law
enforcement vehicle as gunshots
and a loud boom rang out from
the synagogue.
Akram was soon confirmed
dead. A 44-year-old British citi-
zen, he had flown to the UnitedStates from Britain late last
month, first landing in New York
before making his way to the
Dallas area. He said he was seek-
ing the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman being held in
federal prison in Fort Worth for
trying to kill U.S. soldiers.
Cohen noted that Akram had
not told the hostages that he
wanted to kill them because they
were Jewish, but that he was
using them as a bargaining chip.
Cohen said Akram bought into
the antisemitic trope that “Jews
control the banks, Jews control
the media, and Jews control the
government.”
Akram told them he believed
that if he took Jewish people
hostage, the U.S. government
wou ld “certainly” release Sid-
diqui, Cohen said.
Still, Cohen said he didn’t re-
gret the generosity the con-
gregants had initially shown the
stranger who showed up at their
synagogue.
“I don ’t like what happened. I
wish it hadn’t. I wish this guy
hadn’t been that way,” he said.
“But where would we be in a
world if we didn’t welcome the
stranger? That would not be a
world that I want to be in.”
[email protected]Brittany Shammas, Drew Harwell and
Hannah Knowles in Washington and
Mary Beth Gahan in Colleyville, Tex.,
contributed to this report.Security training helped Tex. synagogue hostages flee
BRANDON WADE/ASSOCIATED PRESSANDY JACOBSOHN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
TOP AND ABOVE: Police outside Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Tex., on
Sunday, the day after four members of t he congreg ation were taken hos tage, three for 11 hours.Upon arriving in the
United States,
Akram bought a
cellphone with a
New York area
code, investigators
believe, and made a
number of calls to
another New York
number.
Investigators have
identified that
person, and so far it
does not appear
they played a role in
the gunman’s plans,
according to one
law enforcement
official familiar with
the investigation.
ing the hostage-taking on Satur-
day as a terrorist act, have assem-
bled a partial timeline of Akram’s
actions leading up to it. While
their portrait still has some gaps,
it overall suggests Akram was a
disturbed individual whose be-
havior occasionally raised con-
cerns — but
not urgent
alarms —
among secu-
rity of ficials.
Investiga-
tors are partic-
ularly focused
on tracing
Akram ’s steps
from the mo-
ment he ar-
rived at John F.
Kennedy Inter-
national Air-
port in New York on Dec. 29. By
Jan. 2, he was in Dallas, dropped
off at a c enter for homeless peo-
ple by a man who walked him
inside and embraced him before
saying goodbye.
Thirteen days later, Akram
knocked on the door of the Con-
gregation Beth Israel synagogue
in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb
of Colleyville, sat through part of
the live-streamed Shabbat serv-
ice, and then displayed a weapon.
He took four hostages: Rabbi
Charlie Cytron -Walker, con-
gregant Jeffrey Cohen and two
others.
Akram told his captives that he
SYNAGOGUE FROM A1 wanted to secure the release of
Aafia Siddiqui — an American-
educated Pakistani woman wide-
ly known as “Lady al-Qaeda” who
was convicted of terrorism charg-
es in 2010.
The hostages escaped after an
11-hour standoff.
As soon as the hostages fled,
members of the FBI’s Hostage
Rescue Team rushed in, using a
stun grenade device to try to
disorient the gunman and then
fatally shooting him, according
to law enforcement officials.
They cautioned that the se-
quen ce of events was over in a
matter of seconds and will now
be the subject of an extensive
review by FBI examiners.
Upon arriving in the United
States, Akram bought a c ellphone
with a New York area code, inves-
tigators believe, and made a
number of calls to another New
York number. Investigators have
identified that person, and so far
it does not appear they played a
role in the gunman’s plans, ac-
cording to one law enforc ement
official familiar with the investi-
gation.
Investigators in the United
States and England have been
able to retrieve a significant
amount of electronic data about
Akram ’s movements and inter-
ests in the days before he came to
the synagogue, including a num-
ber of Internet searches he con-
ducted as he looked for a target,
officials said.
Authorities believe he stayed
only a few days in New York
before flying to Texas, where he
spent time in at least one center
that serves homeless people.
According to surveillance vid-
eo shown to The Post, Akram
showed up at OurCalling, a Chris-
tian ministry for homeless peo-
ple in Dallas, on the night of Jan.- He was escorted there by an
unidentified man, who hugged
Akram before leaving, according
to the video.
Akram was tested for the coro-
navirus and stayed overnight,
sleeping on the floor along with
nearly 200 others seeking refuge
from freezing weather. He ate
breakfast in the morning and
left, the center said. Nothing
seemed alarming, officials said,
and they thought to review their
records only after the synagogue
attack.
Akram said “nothing that was
remarkable” during his brief stay,
according to Wayne Walker, the
chief executive of OurCalling.
Those who stay generally are not
searched, and if Akram had a
weapon at that point, Walker
said, there were no indications he
was armed. The facility has
armed security, including former
law enforcement personnel, who
would have intervened if there
had been a sign of danger, Walker
said.
FBI agents are still figuring out
what Akram did for the rest of the
nearly two weeks he was in the
Dallas area before the synagogue
attack, and officials cautioned
that their understanding of his
actions and motivations could
change as they continue to gather
evidence.
At some point while he was in
Texas, he bought a pistol on the
street, investigators believe. Au-
thorities have traced that pistol
to a last recorded purchase in
2020, but it isn’t immediately
clear how the gun later ended up
in Akram’s hands, according to
law enforcement officials.
People who heard Akram on
the live stream of services, which
carried part of the ordeal, said he
chose the synagogue because it
appeared to be the closest gather-
ing of Jewish people to a federal
prison in Fort Worth where Sid-
diqui is being held on an 86-year
sentence for trying to kill Ameri-
can soldiers.
As the hostage standof f
stretched on Saturday night, the
gunman made statements indi-
cating that the situation was
deteriorating, in part because he
became increasingly skeptical
that the FBI would accede to his
demands to free Siddiqui, ac-
cording to one official.
Akram, who is originally from
Blackburn in the English county
of Lancashire, grew up in a fam-
ily well known in his community;
his father is the founder of a
small mosque. Akram had strug-
gled with mental illness, accord-
ing to his brother, Gulbar Akram,
who declined to elaborate.
Gulbar Akram told the Lan-
cashire Telegraph that during thehostage standoff, he pleaded with
his brother to surrender. “I real-
ized that this may be the last time
I would speak to him,” Gulbar
said. “I tried to convince him and
think about his kids. I told him
‘pack it in’ ... ’pack it in.’ His mind
was made up. At no point did he
say he would harm these people.”
British investigators trying to
understand the gunman’s actions
and motives detained his teenage
children for questioning, accord-
ing to law enforcement officials.
Greater Manchester Police said
Sunday that two teenagers were
taken into custody for question-
ing by counterterrorism officers
and that the department would
assist U.S. of ficials with their
inquiry; they said Tuesday that
those teens were released with-
out being charged.
In the live stream of Saturday
morning’s service, Akram said he
had spent 16 hours somewhere in
the synagogue’s area, “walking
around with what I have in my
bag, and with my ammo.” Law
enforcement officials did not say
what explosive devices they
found. But they ordered evacua-
tions in the area while officers
disposed “of some ordnances on
the scene.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Douglas reported from Dallas, and
Booth reported from Blackburn,
England. Jennifer Hassan
contributed reporting from London.Investigators piecing together what gunman did in weeks after arriving in U.S.
Malik Faisal
Akram, 44,
was from the
British city of
Blackburn.