I’m ammo-ed up,” he told someone he called nephew. Meanwhile, the livestream - intended for the faithful who’d stayed home to be safe from Covid-19 - appeared to capture some of what Akram was saying. Soon, nearly 200 members of local, state and federal law enforcement, including the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were on hand, FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno said. They rushed to the synagogue and set up a perimeter, evacuating residents nearby, police said. Police got an emergency call at 10:41 a.m. Cohen dialed 911 on his phone, put the screen side down and moved as commanded, he wrote.Īkram took four people hostage, including the rabbi, authorities said. “And it turned out, that it was his gun,” Cytron-Walker said.Ĭohen said he heard that same click, the “unmistakable sound of an automatic slide engaging a round.” The mysterious guest then began yelling something. Services began at 10 a.m.Īs the rabbi led the prayers - his back turned as he faced toward Jerusalem - he heard a click. His eyes weren’t darting around his hands were open and calm, he said hello, he smiled.”īecause of the recent coronavirus surge, many of Congregation Beth Israel’s members had stayed home on Saturday to watch the weekly prayers via Facebook or Zoom. He seemed calm and happy to be in from the frigid 20 degree morning. “He said hello, smiled, and after we introduced ourselves, I let him go back to his call. “He was on the phone, but briefly stopped his conversation,” Cohen said. Cohen went over and introduced himself, he wrote in a Facebook post describing his experience. The rabbi pointed Jeffrey Cohen, the vice president on the synagogue’s board of trustees, to their guest that day. “Some of his story didn’t quite add up, so I was a little bit curious, but that’s not necessarily an uncommon thing,” said the rabbi, who soon that day would lead a religious service for the 157 membership families of his congregation, established in 1999. Over their shared tea, Cytron-Walker and Akram talked, the rabbi said. He was very quiet and wasn’t there long enough to build any relationships, Butler said.

In the two weeks before he met Cytron-Walker, Akram had spent three nights - January 6, 11 and 13 - at a Dallas homeless shelter, according to Union Gospel Mission Dallas CEO Bruce Butler. Kennedy International Airport in late December, a US law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Akram had arrived in the US via New York’s John F. Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker welcomed in the man and made him a cup of tea, the rabbi told CBS on Monday.Ĭytron-Walker may not have known immediately that Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was a British national. The life sentence was a foregone conclusion after a jury convicted him of hostage taking resulting in death and other crimes earlier this year.A stranger arrived that morning at the synagogue.

He is the most notorious and highest-ranking member of the Islamic State group to ever be convicted in a US Court, prosecutors said on Friday (local time) at his sentencing hearing in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

“This prosecution unmasked the vicious and sadistic ISIS Beatles,” said First Assistant US Attorney Raj Parekh, noting that Elsheikh and the other Beatles always wore masks when they appeared in front of their hostages. El Shafee Elsheikh has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the deaths of four US hostages captured by the Islamic State.īritish national El Shafee Elsheikh has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in an Islamic State scheme that took roughly two dozen Westerners hostage a decade ago.Įlsheikh's hostages gave him a somewhat whimsical nickname – he was dubbed a “Beatle” along with other English-accented captors – but the moniker belied the viciousness of his conduct.

Who wrote the play the hostage