Hostages Released at Texas Synagogue After Hours-Long Standoff

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The New York Sun

UPDATED AT 12:30 A.M. EST

COLLEYVILLE, Texas (Reuters) – An FBI Hostage Rescue Team stormed a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, on Saturday night to free three remaining hostages of a gunman who had disrupted a religious service and began a standoff with police more than 10 hours earlier.

All the hostages were safely released on Saturday night and the gunman was dead, Colleyville Police Chief Michael Miller said at a news conference.

Local reporters said they heard the sound of explosions, possibly flashbangs, and the sound of gunfire shortly before Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, announced the crisis was over.

“Prayers answered. All hostages are out alive and safe,” Mr. Abbott said on Twitter. Information about the man who had taken them hostage was not immediately available.

The Colleyville Police Department said it first responded to the synagogue with SWAT teams in response to emergency calls beginning at about 10:41 a.m. during the Shabbat service, which was being broadcast online. FBI negotiators soon opened contact with the man, who said he wanted to speak to a woman held in a federal prison.

No injuries were reported and it remained unclear what weapons, if any, the man had.

Police earlier reported they were negotiating with the man, who disrupted a religious service on Saturday that was being broadcast online.

The Colleyville Police Department said it had evacuated residents from the area around the Congregation Beth Israel as it deployed SWAT teams after responding to an emergency call at 10:41 a.m.

The man could be heard having a one-sided conversation in what appeared to be a phone call during a Facebook livestream of the Shabbat service of the Reform Jewish synagogue in Colleyville, roughly 16 miles northeast of Fort Worth. The livestream cut off around 3 p.m. EST.

Before the livestream ended, the man could be heard ranting and talking about religion and his sister, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. The man could be heard repeatedly saying he didn’t want to see anyone hurt and that he believed he was going to die, the newspaper said.

Barry Klompus, a member of the congregation since it opened in 1999, said he tuned into the livestream.

“It was horrible listening and watching, and it’s that much more horrible not knowing,” Mr. Klompus said in a telephone interview.

Although he was not able to clearly understand what the man wanted, Mr. Klompus believed the man wanted to talk to his sister.

A U.S. official briefed on the matter told ABC News the hostage-taker claimed to be the brother of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year U.S. prison sentence on her 2010 conviction for shooting at soldiers and FBI agents, and demanding she be freed.

Authorities have not yet confirmed his identity, the official told ABC News.

Siddiqui is being held at a federal prison in the Fort Worth area.

The president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, said on Twitter during the standoff the union was “very grateful to law enforcement” who were working “to free the hostages.” The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, said it was aware of the standoff, and CAIR, a U.S. Muslim advocacy group, condemned the man’s actions.

“This latest antisemitic attack on Jewish Americans worshipping at a synagogue is an act of pure evil,” CAIR said in a statement.

Mr. Klompus said he did not know of any significant previous threats to the congregation.

“We don’t have a security officer on staff but we have what I would say is a very good relationship with the local police,” he said.

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Image: An armored law enforcement vehicle is seen in the area where a man has reportedly taken people hostage at a synagogue during services that were being streamed live, in Colleyville, Texas, January 15, 2022. Reuters/Shelby Tauber


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