AUSTIN, Texas — The brother of the British man who took hostages at a Jewish synagogue outside Dallas over the weekend questioned why the United States allowed someone with a criminal history to enter the country.
“He’s known to police, got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?” Gulbar Akram said in an interview on Sky News over the weekend.
Malik Faisal Akram of Blackburn, England, entered the U.S. by flying into John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York either in late December or early January. He would have passed through U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection booths and had his identity checked against terror and other databases, and he would have been required to provide documents to other U.S. agencies granting him admission before being allowed to depart the airport.
Gulbar Akram did not disclose details of his brother’s criminal history. Under U.S. law, anyone applying for a visa must declare a prior arrest. A conviction is likely to make the application ineligible for a visa. However, it is unclear whether Akram entered the U.S. on one of the many available visas or through the Visa Waiver Program, which allows noncitizens from countries including the United Kingdom to enter the U.S. and remain for less than 90 days.
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Malik Faisal Akram took four people, including a rabbi, hostage on Saturday at Congregation Beth Israel, a Jewish synagogue north of Dallas. Early in the incident, Akram had a livestream on Facebook and called for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted of attempting to kill U.S. military officers in Afghanistan.
The hostages were freed after a long standoff, and Akram died on scene, reportedly shot by FBI agents.
Gulbar Akram called media reports that the hostages were rescued and not freed “bullshit,” saying his brother cooperated with authorities in this aspect.
“A few minutes later, a firefight was taking place, and he was shot and killed,” he said. “There was nothing we could have said to him or done that would have convinced him to surrender.”
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President Joe Biden on Sunday said Akram committed an “act of terror,” adding that he had purchased the guns used in the attack on the street after arriving in New York and spent his first night at a homeless shelter.
