Hostages in Texas Synagogue Standoff Are Rescued, and Suspect Is Dead

COLLEYVILLE, Texas — The police on Saturday night rescued a rabbi and several hostages who had been held by a man who claimed to have weapons and explosives at a synagogue in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, ending a tense 11-hour standoff, the authorities said.

“Prayers answered,” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Twitter after the standoff was over in the suburb of Colleyville, Texas. “All hostages are out alive and safe.”

Michael C. Miller, the Colleyville police chief, said at a news conference that a hostage-rescue team had entered the synagogue, and the suspect was dead.

He and other authorities declined to identify the man or say how he had died. They did not make clear whether any weapons had been recovered.

About 200 local, state and federal law enforcement officers had converged on the synagogue, including a team of F.B.I. agents who flew from Quantico, Va., the authorities said.

The man had taken four hostages during a morning service at Congregation Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue in Colleyville, a city of about 26,000 residents that is about 15 miles northeast of Fort Worth, the authorities said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said the man had demanded to see his “sister,” who may not actually be related to him and who is currently in U.S. federal custody for “terroristic events” in Afghanistan.

“The man claims he and his sister will be going to Jannah (Muslim belief of heaven) after he sees her,” the department said in a statement earlier on Saturday.

The congregation had been holding a service at 10 a.m. It was being live streamed on its Facebook page when, the police said, they were called at 10:41 a.m.

On the livestream, a man could be heard shouting about dying and not liking police officers, although the context was not clear because the stream was inaudible at times. A video of the livestream did not show what was going on inside the synagogue.

The man could also be heard demanding to get his sister on the phone before the livestream stopped.

“It’s a deal,” he said at one point. “It’s a deal I had with you.”

One male hostage was released at about 5 p.m., the police said. He was unharmed.

Chief Miller said hostage negotiators had been speaking to the man throughout the day.

President Biden put out a statement Saturday saying he was sending “love and strength” to members of the synagogue and the Jewish community overall.

“There is more we will learn in the days ahead about the motivations of the hostage taker,” he said. “But let me be clear to anyone who intends to spread hate — we will stand against antisemitism and against the rise of extremism in this country.”

Eugene Posnock, a member of the synagogue, said that she and other members had been following the service on Zoom when the man entered the sanctuary, disrupting prayers.

She said all she heard was yelling in the background before the connection was lost.

The hostage situation came as synagogues and Jewish institutions across the country have been on high alert after attacks like the one that killed a woman in Poway, Calif., in 2019, and another that killed 11 people in Pittsburgh in 2018.

Bradley Orsini, senior national security adviser for Secure Community Network, which consults with synagogues across the country on safety procedures, said that a colleague had advised Congregation Beth Israel on its security procedures last summer.

The consultation typically involves preparing for an active-shooter situation and developing awareness of any security threats, he said.

Edgar Sandoval, Nadav Gavrielov, Vimal Patel, Campbell Robertson, Ruth Graham and Adam Goldman contributed reporting.

The rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, is Charlie Cytron-Walker, a married father of two who took up his current post in 2006, according to the congregation’s website.

Giovanni Capriglione, a state representative who has been in office for nine years, said Rabbi Cytron-Walker was known for bringing all faiths together. “He has brought Christian groups, and various Muslims groups together,” he said. “He is not someone who is railing against one faith or another. He’s the exact opposite.”

A profile of the rabbi in a Texas magazine, Arise & Rejoice, said he met his wife, Adena Cytron-Walker, when they were both students at the University of Michigan. The congregation’s website said he graduated in 1998.

Devorah Titunik has been a member of the tight-knit congregation for over a decade and described the strong impact the rabbi has had on her community, particularly through his work on interfaith programs.

“Rabbi Charlie — he’s very much beloved, not only at the synagogue, in the greater community,” she said. “He’s been very involved in interfaith outreach. He’s had a very good relationship with the Muslim community in our area. He’s a mensch. He’s a really special rabbi.”

The rabbi has heavily emphasized Tikkun Olam, the Jewish concept of repairing the world, in his sermons and teachings at the synagogue. He has also sought to develop the congregation’s place in its local community.

“He’s very big on building relationships within and without of the community,” she said. “And I think that’s one of his main focuses — the peacemaker and to try to make at least this corner of the world a little bit better.”

Ms. Titunik said the rabbi is also known for constantly checking in on members of the community.

“A friend of mine’s husband died right at the high holidays, which is a super busy time for him, and yet he dropped everything to kind of be with her and her family to help them get through it,” she said. “If you talk to any members, you’ll hear that’s a very common theme. He’s there for people in the congregation when they need him.”

Ms. Titunik was planning to meet with the rabbi on Sunday as part of the synagogue’s preparations for the Jewish holiday of Purim. They were planning to work on the synagogue’s Purim spiel, its play retelling the holiday’s story.

“It’s one of the things that he really delights in doing.”

In the late 1990s, a small group of Jewish people who had relocated to the Dallas-Fort Worth area from across the country came together to create a new community for themselves. It began at a Yom Kippur break fast, extended into Shabbat services and potluck dinners, and, before long, became a synagogue. Its founders called it Congregation Beth Israel.

Over the years, the congregation became an extended Jewish family in Colleyville, an upper-class suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Today, it has about 200 close-knit members.

Before Saturday, when a livestream of a Shabbat service captured a hostage situation unfolding, the congregation was known for community building activities at a nearby community center, a Hanukkah Hoe Down and a community Seder.

The lead rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, was known for building alliances with other faith-based organizations, said Giovanni Capriglione, a state representative who has been in office for nine years.

“The fact that it happened here is shocking,” Mr. Capriglione said on Saturday. “He has brought Christian groups and various Muslims groups together. He is not someone who is railing against one faith or another. He’s the exact opposite.”

The congregation began small, with about 25 members in the summer of 1999. The first religious services were held at a rented church facility. A school with 75 students opened shortly after, according to the synagogue’s website.

The synagogue quickly established itself as a refuge for the local Jewish community by buying a Torah dating back to the Holocaust from Eastern Europe and receiving donations of prayer books. By 2001, its congregation had grown to about 60 families, according to the synagogue’s website.

After years of planning its design and final look, a 160-seat sanctuary opened in late January 2004. Two years later, the synagogue welcomed Rabbi Cytron-Walker, who “continues to serve our community today,” the website reads.

“They’re a kind, loving congregation who are very supportive of one another and of the community,” said Beverly Powell, a state senator who knows the region well. “We have formed a very caring relationship with them. And so we’re keeping them in our prayers today.”

State Representative Craig Goldman said it remains a mystery why the perpetrator chose Beth Israel.

He said two other larger synagogues in the region, Temple Beth-El, a Reform congregation, where his family worships, and Congregation Ahavath Sholom, a conservative community, had been around for more than 100 years.

“This is a smaller congregation with a young rabbi who was trying to just quietly, peacefully build the congregation and community up there,” he said.

Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.

Amy and Jerry Moore’s backyard is across from the synagogue. After hearing something was going on at the temple, they looked out a rear window of their house and saw a SWAT vehicle pull up and park.

Soon after, they heard the Facebook audio feed from inside the sanctuary. Mr. Moore said that the suspect “was going on and on about wanting to get his sister out,” and then asked each of the hostages how many children they had. Mr. Moore said he then said to the hostage negotiator, “Do you want to have seven children lose their parent?”

At some point, Mr. Moore said the man appeared to receive a phone call from someone close to him and then lost his patience with the person on the line, yelling, “‘Don’t cry! Man up, man up! Stop crying. I’m going to die. I’m going to die.’”

After hours of waiting, Mr. Moore said he heard a loud bang and what appeared to be gunshots late Saturday, “and it seemed like it was lit up over there and you could obviously tell something was going on.”

Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Twitter that the hostages had been rescued safely, and police then said the suspect died in the standoff.

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Rhonda and Roger Wallace, who live about a quarter mile from Beth Israel, learned that something had gone wrong at the synagogue when they got a text message from a friend asking whether they had received an alert from the city.

Soon after, Ms. Wallace looked outside a window and saw a police officer down the street.

The Wallaces said that they were horrified and saddened for the people in the synagogue and the community at large.

“How awful it is for these people who were worshiping in their own way,” said Rhonda Wallace, 55. “They had their freedom revoked. Nobody deserves this.”

Anna Salton Eisen was the synagogue’s founding president. She and her husband donated the land and built the synagogue.

Mrs. Salton Eisen said the event had shaken her not just as someone who cares about the synagogue, but as the child of Holocaust survivors. “We want to feel safe, not just in the community, but in our world,” she said.

— Margarita Birnbaum

Police increased security at synagogues across the country, including in New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas, as a precautionary measure after a hostage situation at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the New York Police Department had deployed additional resources to key Jewish locations around the city. The Los Angeles Police Department said it was conducting community outreach and increasing patrols around synagogues.

Synagogues and Jewish institutions across the country have stepped up security in recent years after attacks and repeated threats of violence. Some have installed cameras and locks while others have hired armed guards.

The security measures have been prompted by the looming threat of antisemitic violence after attacks like the one that killed a woman at a synagogue in Poway, Calif., in 2019, and another that killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

Bradley Orsini, a senior security adviser for Secure Community Network, which consults with synagogues across the country on safety procedures, said a colleague had advised Congregation Beth Israel on its security procedures last summer. This kind of consultation typically involves preparing for an active shooter situation and developing awareness of any security threats, he said.

Many Jews expressed exhaustion on Saturday at the security concerns surrounding practicing their faith at a time when antisemitism comes from many sources, including white supremacists and Islamic extremists.

Avi Mayer, the managing director of public affairs for the American Jewish Committee, said he has attended synagogues on five continents and has had to go through metal detectors, enter “fortresslike” compounds and walk past soldiers with automatic rifles.

“This is Jewish life in 2022,” he wrote on Twitter.

“If you attend religious services without armed guards at the entrance and without fear of attack,” he wrote in another post, “you do not experience religious life as American Jews do.”