He is said to have spoken with a British accent
The man shot dead as FBI officers rescued four people taken in the Texas synagogue hostage situation is thought to have been British, according to reports.
The individual who entered the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas during the morning service on Saturday is said to have spoken with a British accent and was ultimately shot dead around 9pm local time after officers entered the building.
The rescue, sections of which were captured on the synagogue’s livestream, took an estimated 12 hours; you can see footage of the moment the hostages were freed below:
Footage of the moment when FBI rescued the hostages at this Texas Synagogue. The hostage taker has been identified as a 44 year old British Islamist who had recently traveled to US. He is not the brother of Pakistani Al Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui. Investigations are ongoing. pic.twitter.com/omJxITvU4b
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) January 16, 2022
While it had been reported that the hostage-taker may be the brother of Aafia Siddiqui – a Pakistani neuroscientist associated with al Qaeda and convicted of attempted murder towards two US military officers while in custody in Afghanistan – this is no longer believed to be the case.
As Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul writes, though the individual responsible for the hostage situation had been demanding for the release of Siddiqui, he has now been identified as an unrelated 44-year-old British Islamist who had recently travelled to the US.
In this clip taken from the livestream, the as-yet-unnamed male can be heard here saying “there is something f*****g wrong with America” over and over again, while another individual can be heard trying to negotiate.
https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1482449728403038208?s=20
The man took the synagogue’s rabbi and three other individuals captive and law enforcement spent hours talking to the assailant before deciding to enter the building.
All four are said to have been recovered without harm and while police are still unwilling to release the man’s identity, they are investigating his connection to Siddiqui, who has been held at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas since 2010.
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