Chris Lange, FISM News
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A rabbi and three others held hostage in a Texas synagogue for more than 10 hours Saturday are safe and the suspect is dead, according to authorities. No information has been provided as to how the hostage taker was killed, or by whom, but the FBI and local law enforcement said an investigation into “the shooting incident” is underway. The name of the suspect has not yet been released.
Update at 9:55pm: The SWAT situation in Colleyville is resolved and all hostages are safe. We continue to work in partnership with the FBI to finalize all details. We will be addressing the media staging area at Good Shepherd Catholic Church at 10:15pm with an update.
— Colleyville Police (@ColleyvillePD) January 16, 2022
Prayers answered.
All hostages are out alive and safe.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 16, 2022
At approximately 10:41 a.m. Saturday, Colleyville Police were dispatched to the 6100 block of Pleasant Run Road in response to a 911 call indicating that an armed man had disrupted a Shabbat service at the Beth Israel Synagogue and had taken four people hostage, according to an AP report. Responding officers declared an “emergency situation” and evacuated the surrounding area, establishing a perimeter around the building. Officers were subsequently joined by members of the North Tarrant SWAT team and other local agencies, as well as FBI crisis negotiators who established contact with the suspect.
At approximately 5 p.m., a male hostage was released unharmed as FBI negotiators continued direct communications with the suspect. Law enforcement personnel entered the building at around 9 p.m. Approximately 12 minutes later, Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported hearing “a loud bang followed by what sounded like gunfire” in the vicinity of the synagogue. Colleyville Police announced that the suspect was deceased at 9:55 p.m. and that the remaining hostages had been released unharmed.
The gunman says he is muslim and holding atleast 6 people says "he will kill people if anyone gets close to the synagogue" https://t.co/4yBnQhQd34 pic.twitter.com/l3liPypch2
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) January 15, 2022
About an hour into the livestream service, witnesses say they heard a man angrily ranting about America and claiming to have a bomb. The suspect purportedly indicated that he was a Muslim and claimed to be the brother of convicted Al Qaeda-linked terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, who was sentenced to 86 years in prison for attempting to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in 2010. The man could be heard threatening to kill the hostages if Siddiqui was not immediately released. Lawyers for Siddiqui later said that the hostage taker was not related to their client and that neither she nor any members of her family were involved in the hostage situation.
During the standoff, Star Telegram reporter Jessika Harkay tweeted out remarks allegedly made by the hostage taker that could be heard on the livestream feed posted on Meta.
“Don’t cry on the f****** phone with me,” a male could be heard shouting. “Don’t f****** cry on me. I have 6 beautiful kids … There are hostages in the synagogue who are going to die. … What are you crying for? I’m going to die, are you listening? … I’m going to die doing this, all right? Are you listening? I’m going to die. Don’t cry about me,” the suspect allegedly said. Meta has since removed the video from its platform.
President Joe Biden, who was spending the weekend in Delaware, praised the work of local, state, and federal law enforcement in bringing the hostage situation to an end in a statement and vowed to “stand against anti-Semitism and against the rise of extremism in this country.”
Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra subsequently tweeted a video showing then-presidential candidate Biden attacking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for signing a bill into law allowing lawful gun owners to carry firearms in places of worship, repeatedly calling the bill “irrational.”
“Today, a good guy with a gun saved countless lives inside a Texas church” Saavedra tweeted.
CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group, condemned the attack on the synagogue Saturday afternoon.
“This latest antisemitic attack at a house of worship is an unacceptable act of evil,” CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement. “We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community, and we pray that law enforcement authorities are able to swiftly and safely free the hostages. No cause can justify or excuse this crime.”