White House: Texas hostage-taker not in terror database
Source: Associated Press
White House: Texas hostage-taker not in terror database
By JAMIE STENGLE, JAKE BLEIBERG and ERIC TUCKER
January 18, 2022
COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) — The gunman who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue in a 10-hour standoff that ended in his death was checked against law enforcement databases before entering the U.S. but raised no red flags, the White House said Tuesday.
Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, arrived in the U.S. at Kennedy Airport in New York about two weeks ago, a law enforcement official said. He spent time in Dallas-area homeless shelters before the attack Saturday in the suburb of Colleyville.
British media, including the Guardian, reported Tuesday that Akram was investigated by the domestic intelligence service MI5 as a possible “terrorist threat” in 2020, but the investigation was closed after authorities concluded he posed no threat.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Akram appears not to have set off any alarms in U.S. terrorism databases when he entered the country.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/texas-synagogue-hostage-taker-f2b96edefda5b51813e66e743d2edf62
= new reply since forum marked as read
