
The man who took hostages at a Texas synagogue sought to buy drugs and a “machine gun” before the standoff last month, an FBI agent said in court Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
The testimony came during a detention hearing for the Dallas man accused of selling Malik Faisal Akram the handgun he used in his attack on Congregation Beth Israel in the suburb of Colleyville. A federal magistrate ordered the alleged seller, Henry “Michael” Williams, detained ahead of his trial on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
During Wednesday’s detention hearing, FBI agent Taylor Page testified that Williams said Akram initially reached out to him seeking to buy methamphetamines and “a machine gun or a weapon that contains a large number of bullets.” Akram explained that he wanted the gun for intimidation to help settle a debt, according to Page.
Page also said that Akram fired his gun at some point during the standoff but did not provide details. Multiple gunshots could be heard in the area around the synagogue soon after the FBI breached the building, noted AP.
Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, held hostages in the Dallas-area suburb while demanding the release of a federal prisoner. The standoff ended after more than 10 hours when the rabbi threw a chair at Akram and fled with the other two remaining hostages just as an FBI tactical team was moving in.
Jeffrey Cohen, one of the hostages in the synagogue attack, told MSNBC after the hostage-taking incident that Akram was not "your typical attacker" who wanted to kill Jewish people but that he had "bought into these tropes."
"He came to the Jews because he bought into these very dangerous stories that the Jews control the world and the Jews control the government and the banks and the media. And we as good people and we as patriotic Americans, we need to challenge those things when we hear them, because these words do have consequences," Cohen recalled.
The UK-based Jewish Chronicle published a recording of a phone call between the gunman and his brother in Britain which took place before Akram was shot dead by SWAT teams.
In the recording, Akram told his brother, "I'm opening the doors for every youngster in England to enter America and f*** with them”.
The gunman also boasted about his desire for martyrdom and said, "I've asked Allah for this death, Allah is with me, I'm not worried in the slightest."