Texas Synagogue Hostage Taker Had 'Mental Health Issues,'
Brother in U.K. Says.
The family of a British man who took four hostages during the standoff at Congregation Beth Israel described him as deeply troubled.
BLACKBURN, England — The British man named by the F.B.I. as the person who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue on Saturday had serious mental health issues and arguably should not have been able to travel to America at all, his brother said in an interview on Monday.
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn in northwestern England, was killed after an 11-hour standoff with the police and law enforcement officers at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, near Fort Worth, the F.B.I. said.
His brother Gulbar Akram described him in a telephone interview as a deeply troubled man who had grown distant from his family members in recent years.
“He had mental health issues,” his brother said in the interview. “It’s well known, everybody in the town knows, he has mental health issues.” He did not provide further details.
The British authorities, including the Greater Manchester Police and the Home Office, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. . .
He described a tense and emotional conversation with his brother, whom he said he had tried to talk into releasing the hostages and turning himself in as the standoff dragged on into the evening.
After all the hostages were released, Faisal Akram died, though the authorities have not provided details of how.
His brother said he did not believe his brother held antisemitic or racist beliefs, and that he had a recording of a phone call to his brother when he was in the synagogue, in which he referred to the hostages as “four beautiful Jews.”'
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/17/world/europe/texas-synagogue-hostage-taker-family.html
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