British businessman who took four people hostage at Texas synagogue forced them to their knees and threatened to shoot them unless the FBI released an al-Qaeda prisoner, inquest told

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 inquest heard.

Malik Faisal Akram, 44, born in Blackburn, Lancashire, fired a warning shot and shouted that he would “put a bullet” in the heads of the “Israeli mothers******s” in a final phone call. The extremist, who had previously been investigated by MI5, was shot dead minutes later after officers stormed the synagogue.

The inquiry heard that Akram, who ran a chain of pharmacies, wanted a female Pakistani scientist named Aafia Siddiqui, who had links to al-Qaeda, to be released from prison. She was being held in Fort Worth, about 20 miles away.

Akram, a father of six, traveled to New York in December 2021, where he bought a gun on the black market before flying to Texas. At around 10 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2022, he talked his way into the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, 30 miles from Dallas, where a service was underway, by claiming he was homeless and held a rabbi and three Jewish worshipers hostage.

Akram was arrested in Blackburn in 2018 (pictured) after refusing to pay rent to his landlord. Police vans can be seen at the scene

SWAT team members are deployed to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas

Other parishioners, who were watching via a livestream 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 into the standoff, Akram was on the phone with his sons when he fired the gun into the air, telling FBI negotiators, “It was just, you know, my kids, I was just saying goodbye to them. I said, should I fire one? and I just fired one.”

Around 8pm, Akram became more aggressive and unpredictable.

He shouted at the negotiators, ‘You fucking bastards, you can’t release one person, one woman, because your fucking egos are bigger than a big girl’s fucking bra.’

Akram could also be heard telling the hostages, “Okay, get on your f*****g knees, you motherfuckers,” adding, “Fuck it, I’m going to take everybody now… I mean, it’s f*****g business now.”

On January 15, 2022, Akram talked his way into Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville

Police on scene after incident at Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville

He called the prisoners “Israeli bastards,” adding: “I’m going to fuck and 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 fucking listening? I have a fucking trigger over all three of their fucking heads, right? And I’m going to fucking pull it.”

At 9:10 p.m., the rabbi decided to throw a chair at Akram to distract him. He and two hostages were able to escape.

CCTV footage showed Akram approaching the door and aiming his gun at the last hostage, who had fallen into the bushes a few metres from the synagogue’s back door. He did not fire, however, and instead went back inside, closing the door behind him.

A minute later, specialized police officers entered and shot Akram dead.

A general view of Blackburn in northern England, where Texas synagogue hostage taker Malik Faisal Akram was born

Texas deputy coroner Richard Fries gave Akram’s cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds. He was hit by five bullets, one of which struck him in the chest, the court heard.

Coroner James Adeley noted that Akram “had been holding hostages and died after being shot by federal agents.”

The court heard that married Akram ran a chain of chemists in the north-west of England, but his business went bust around the same time as his marriage. At the time of his death, he had been estranged from his wife for three years.

Staff in Blackburn said Akram had become increasingly religious and had fallen out with his extended 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 small-scale investigation by MI5 in 2020, but the case was closed after a month.