A British businessman who took four people hostage in a Texas synagogue forced them to their knees and threatened to shoot them unless the FBI released an al-Qaeda prisoner, an investigation found.
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn, Lancashire, fired a warning shot and shouted that he would “put a bullet” in the heads of “Israeli bastards” in a final phone call. The extremist, who had already been under investigation by MI5, was shot dead after officers stormed the synagogue minutes later.
According to the investigation, Akram, who ran a chain of pharmacies, wanted a Pakistani scientist named Aafia Siddiqui, who was linked to Al Qaeda, released from prison. She was being held in Fort Worth, about 30 kilometers away.
Akram, a father of six, had traveled to New York, where he purchased a gun on the black market, in December 2021 before flying to Texas. At around 10 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2022, he entered the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, 30 miles (48 km) from Dallas, where a church service was being held, claiming he was homeless and took a rabbi and three Jewish worshipers hostage.
Malik Faisal Akram (pictured) ran a pharmacy chain and was originally from Blackburn, Lancashire.
Akram was arrested in Blackburn in 2018 (pictured) after refusing to pay rent to his landlord. Police vans are seen at the scene
SWAT team members deploy near the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas
Other members of the congregation, who were following the live broadcast due to the Covid-19 epidemic, alerted the police.
A recording of Akram’s demands during the 11-hour siege was played during the hearing at Preston Coroner’s Court.
At 2:42 p.m., four and a half hours after the standoff began, Akram was on the phone with his children when he fired his gun into the air, telling FBI negotiators: “It was like my kids were saying goodbye to me for the last time. I said, ‘Should I shoot one?’ And I just shot one.”
By around 8pm, Akram had become more volatile and aggressive.
He yelled at the negotiators: ‘You fucking bastards can’t release a fucking person, a fucking woman, because your fucking ego is bigger than a big girl’s fucking bra.’
Akram could also be heard telling the hostages: “Okay, get on your knees you f***ing motherf***ers,” adding: “F*** you, I’m taking you all now… I mean, to the f***ing business now.”
On January 15, 2022, Akram made his way to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville.
Police on scene after incident at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville
He called the captives “Israeli sons of bitches” and added: “I’m going to cause bloodshed.”
After demanding that the FBI bring his “sister” Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year prison sentence for trying to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, to the synagogue, Akram said: “Are you listening to me? I’ve got a fucking trigger in all three of my heads, don’t I? And I’m going to pull it too.”
At 9:10 p.m., the rabbi decided to throw a chair to distract Akram and he and two hostages were able to escape.
CCTV footage showed Akram heading to the door and pointing his gun at the last hostage, who had fallen into bushes a few metres from the synagogue’s back door, but he did not fire and instead went back inside, closing the door behind him.
A minute later, law enforcement officers entered the scene and shot Akram dead.
General view of Blackburn, in the north of England, where Malik Faisal Akram, the Texas synagogue hijacker, was born
Richard Fries, Texas’ deputy medical examiner, said Akram’s cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. He was shot five times, one of which hit him in the chest, the court heard.
Coroner James Adeley recorded that Akram “had been holding hostages and died after being shot by federal officers”.
The court heard that Akram, who was married, ran a chain of pharmacies in the north-west of England, but his business failed around the same time as his marriage. At the time of his death, he had been estranged from his wife for three years.
Blackburn’s relatives said Akram had become increasingly religious and had been at odds with his family in the months before his death. He had spent much of the year before the attack in Pakistan.
At the time of the attack it was revealed that Akram had previously been the subject of a low-level investigation by MI5 in 2020, but the case was closed after a month.