A BRITISH jihadist pressured Jewish hostages to their knees and threatened to shoot them within the head earlier than FBI brokers killed him, an inquest heard.
Islamic extremist Malik Faisal Akram, 44, held the 4 at a Texas synagogue to demand an al-Qaeda prisoner’s launch.
Akram, of Blackburn, fired a warning shot within the air as he made the menace in a last cellphone name to the FBI.
He was killed when armed agents stormed the synagogue minutes afterward January 15 2022.
The dad-of-six had owned 5 pharmacies which closed down when his marriage broke up.
He was topic to a domestic violence safety courtroom order in 2016 to guard his spouse, the Preston inquest heard
Coroner James Adeley recorded that he had “detained hostages and died after being shot by federal brokers”.
Associates in Blackburn stated he grew to become more and more spiritual and had quarrelled along with his wider household within the months earlier than his demise.
He had spent a lot of the yr earlier than the assault in Pakistan.
It emerged after the kidnap drama that Akram had beforehand been the topic of a low-level investigation by MI5 however the case was closed after a month.
He travelled to New York on December 29 2021, after which on to Dallas, the place he bought a black market handgun.
Akram talked his way into a synagogue in nearby Colleyville, holding a rabbi and three Jewish worshippers hostage.
The inquest revealed that the service was being live-streamed to different members of the congregation due to the Covid epidemic.
They had been in a position to alert police after Akram was let into the constructing, claiming he was homeless.
