New Delhi: The Blackburn terrorist shot dead after having laid siege to a Texas synagogue had spent the week before the attack at a Christian homeless shelter and bought his gun ‘off the street’ nearby, the Daily Mail reported.
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Lancashire, UK, staged a 10-hour attack near Dallas on Saturday and held a Rabbi and three others hostage while demanding the release of a convicted terrorist known as ‘Lady Al Qaeda’ so they could die together.
Akram is understood to have landed in New York on January 2, most likely on a flight from Manchester, and was granted legal entry into the US, despite having a criminal record.
The address he gave on his arrival papers appears to be the same as the Queens Hotel in New York City, which offers basic accommodation for $80-a-night, the report said.
Although Akram said in the entry documents that he would be staying there, it is unclear if he actually did, with a receptionist at the hotel unable to say whether this was the case, the New York Times reported. The receptionist said that FBI agents had reviewed the hotel’s CCTV footage, but found nothing useful.
The British Muslim crossed the country, likely by internal flight, next appearing at a Texan Christian charity asking for a bed for the night.
He stayed at the Union Gospel Mission in Dallas in the week before the terror attack, and was able to purchase a handgun ‘off the street’, according to US President Joe Biden.
