The FBI has made a final determination that the man who held hostages at gunpoint at the Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville acted alone.
Malik Akram traveled from a town in England to Colleyville, where he took Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three others hostage during a service that was being live-streamed January 15. One hostage was released. Three others escaped hours after the ordeal began. An FBI team shot Akram dead.
Federal investigators have spent three months analyzing Akram’s cell phone and movements from the time he left a town near Manchester England and the time he attacked the synagogue and concluded there was no conspiracy, and that Akram had acted alone, according to sources.
Counter-terrorism investigators in the United Kingdom had detained several people during their investigation into Akram, but nobody is known to have been charged.
One man is facing a charge of selling Akram the gun. Michael Williams was indicted for unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. He was arrested after the FBI said he sold Malik Akram the handgun used in the Colleyville synagogue attack. Williams has pleaded not guilty. He is not suspected of helping Akram plan his attack.
The investigation, itself, is still ongoing as behavior analysts are still attempting to understand Akram's mindset, the sources say.
“It will be interesting to see what intelligence they garner to try to develop more strategies to prevent this,” said Richard Roper, a former Dallas U.S. Attorney who is now a criminal defense lawyer. “That’s the name of the game now. Trying to parlay evidence into protecting the homeland. And hopefully it will pay off.”
The word of the FBI’s conclusion comes on the same day as the synagogue is reopening for the first time since the attack.
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