Two years before Malik Faisal Akram went on to lay siege to a synagogue in Texas this past weekend, spies in his British homeland carried out an investigation into him and decided that he posed no threat. The Guardian reports that MI5 identified Akram as a possible Islamist terrorist threat as recently as late 2020, but it closed its investigation after finding no evidence that he was dangerous. That decision allowed the British citizen to travel to the U.S. at the start of this year and buy a gun, which he used to hold four people hostage for 11 hours at a synagogue in Colleyville on Saturday. The Guardian reports a “mid-level” investigation into Akram took place “in the second half of 2020,” but no information of concern was given to U.S. authorities before the 44-year-old left Britain two weeks ago. Akram was shot and killed by police; no hostages were harmed.
