WFAA obtained 911 recordings and bodycam footage from Colleyville PD, days before the one-year mark since the hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel.
COLLEYVILLE, Texas —
The 911 calls poured in on the morning of Jan. 15, 2022.
A British citizen who traveled to the U.S. and across the country entered Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville while a Sabbath service was being livestreamed.
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the rabbi at the time, welcomed him in with tea. The man told a story of homelessness. Cytron-Walker and another member of the Congregation believed his story checked out.
Then, Cytron-Walker heard the sound of a gun click.
That was the moment Malik Faisal Akram took Cytron-Walker and three others hostage.
Nearly one year after the hostage standoff, WFAA obtained 911 audio of the hostage crisis from the Colleyville Police Department. Previous requests for the 911 audio were not granted due to ongoing investigation at the time.
“Please get someone there,” one of the callers told a 911 dispatcher. She was watching the tense situation unfold in a Facebook livestream of the service.
“Someone is in our synagogue yelling at the Rabbi obscenities,” another 911 caller said.
Among the 911 callers was the spouse of one of the hostages.
“My husband’s inside… his name is Shane,” the woman said.
911 audio from Cytron-Walker revealed the horror from inside the synagogue.
“I’ve got someone who has a gun and he says he has two bombs,” Cytron-Walker told a 911 dispatcher as he calmly tried to talk down the gunman in the background. “This is a very stressful situation.”
Cytron-Walker’s 911 call, which lasted more than an hour and forty minutes, grew intense by the minute. At one point in the audio, Akram took the phone and began speaking directly with the dispatcher.
“I love death, more than you love life. I love death more than you [expletive] love life,” Akram said. “I have three bombs here my dear, you wanna [expletive] catch me? I’m gonna tell you what I need. In the next hour and a half, Jewish people are gonna die if you don’t [expletive] comply. If this bomb goes, I’m gonna kill innocent [expletive] Texans, and I love Texas people.”
Akram demanded to “get the main rabbi in America on the phone” and said: “Listen rabbi, listen, you’re a good guy. You let me in here.”
Colleyville PD bodycam footage obtained by WFAA shows the moment one of the hostages, 86-year-old Lawrence (Larry) Schwartz, was released, which was roughly halfway into the 11-hour standoff.
The bodycam video shows law enforcement officials helping Schwartz into a vehicle, where he was safely transported away from the synagogue.
“Can I call my wife?” Schwartz said. “You can call anybody you want,” an officer responded.
“I just wanna let her know that I’m alright,” Schwartz said.
Late into the night, Cytron-Walker waited for a moment when Akram was distracted. He yelled “run,” and threw a chair at the gunman.
In a movie-like escape, Cytron-Walker and the remaining hostages, Jeff Cohen and Shane Woodward, bolted out of an exit door.
Law enforcement made their way into the synagogue and shot Akram to death.