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Hostages in Texas: Rabbi quickly threw a chair at the kidnapper

Hostages in Texas: Rabbi quickly threw a chair at the kidnapper

Le rabbin d’une synagogue du Texas qui a été le théâtre d’une prize d’otages a raconté lundi comment, “terrifié”, il avait précipité le dénouement en jetant une chaise sur l’homme armé people, permetcore reauxues escape.

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“In the last hour of events, he didn’t get what he wanted,” Charlie Citron Walker, a rabbi of the Beth Israel Synagogue, told CBS. Dallas.

“We were terrified,” he added, recalling Saturday’s 10-hour hostage-taking.

“When I saw an opportunity, at a time when he was not in good shape, I made sure that the two men still with me were ready to leave. The exit wasn’t too far away. I told them to go,” he continued, his voice still emotional.

“I threw a chair at the gunman, went to the door, and the three of us were able to get out without firing a shot,” the rabbi said.

British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44, took four people hostage on Saturday in this synagogue, and is particularly demanding the release of Afia Siddiqui, the Pakistani scholar who was sentenced in 2010 by a New York federal court to 86 years in prison for criminal acts. terrorism.

One of the hostages was released after several hours of negotiations, while the other three hostages were released in the evening, all unharmed. The details of the outcome, which was accompanied by police intervention and gunshots, which resulted in the killing of the kidnapper, are not yet known.

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Charlie Citron Walker explained that he received training, specially organized by the police, to know how to act in these delicate situations.

“They really teach you that when your life is in danger, we have to do everything we can to get to safety,” he said. He added that training as a religious leader conveyed the “idea of ​​a calm and non-anxious existence,” which helped him control his temper while holding hostages.

According to this account, Malik Faisal Akram initially knocked on the door of the synagogue and the rabbi offered him a cup of tea “so that he could talk to him.”

“I haven’t heard anything suspicious,” he explained. But “while praying, with my back turned” I heard the click of his “firearm”.