Officials said during a press conference on Friday that the hostage situation at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas was both an “act of terrorism” and a “hate crime.”
Federal Bureau of Investigations Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno said that the hostage taker’s demands clearly met the definition of terrorism.
“This is a federal hate crime. As negotiators began to engage with Akram, he repeatedly demanded the United States release a convicted al-Qaida terrorist in exchange for the safe return of the hostages. In doing so, his actions clearly met the definition of terrorism,” DeSarno said.
FBI DIRECTOR CALLS TEXAS HOSTAGE SITUATION ‘ACT OF TERRORISM TARGETING THE JEWISH COMMUNITY’
FBI Special Agent In Charge Matthew DeSarno speaks at a news conference near the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on January 15, 2022 in Colleyville, Texas.
(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Authorities say that Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a British national, entered the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville on Saturday and took Jewish worshippers hostage.
All hostages escaped after nearly 11 hours with the hostage-taker dead.
After the hostage situation, FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno said that “the Texas synagogue hostage taker’s demands were specifically focused on issues not connected to the Jewish community.”
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Law enforcement process the scene in front of the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022, in Colleyville, Texas. A man held hostages for more than 10 hours Saturday inside the temple. The hostages were able to escape and the hostage taker was killed. FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno said a team would investigate “the shooting incident.”
(AP Photo/Brandon Wade)
Since then, the FBI said that the hostage situation was an “act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.”
“Now let me be clear and blunt, the FBI is, and has been, treating Saturday’s events as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community. Within a matter of hours, we deployed FBI SWAT, two highly trained units from our elite Hostage Rescue Team; those are the folks who ultimately were the ones who went into the synagogue, along with canines,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said during a virtual webinar hosted by the Anti-Defamation League.
