Authorities northeast of Fort Worth was negotiating Saturday with a man who took a rabbi and three other people, hostage, at a Colleyville synagogue during services.
According to FWST, Shortly after 5 p.m., a male hostage was released uninjured, Colleyville police said. The man will be reunited with his family soon and doesn’t require medical attention, police said.
FBI crisis negotiators had been at the synagogue and in communication for several hours with the hostage-taker, according to a statement from Colleyville police about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Police said they have no information suggesting anyone inside the synagogue had been injured.
The man claimed to be the brother of the convicted terrorist known as Lady Al Qaeda stormed a Texas synagogue on the Sabbath and is holding at least four hostages, telling a SWAT team, ‘If anyone tries to enter this building, I’m telling you…everyone will die.”
The assailant, who is believed to be Muhammad Siddiqui, took the hostages at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville during religious services around 11.30 am, which were being live-streamed.
The live stream cut off shortly before 2 pm local time. Before the live stream cut off, the assailant can be heard saying, ‘I’m going to die. Don’t cry about me’ ‘Are you listening? I am going to die,’ he repeated over and over. He is claiming to have backpacks filled with bombs inside the synagogue, but to what extent the assailant is armed, is unclear.
The FBI has also interviewed a New York City rabbi who spoke with the suspect earlier today after he demanded Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, one of the hostages, to call her and demanded she release Aafia Siddiqui. Police have noted that there is no current threat to the general public, but Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have deployed additional patrol units at synagogues as other major cities follow suit.
