(PatrioticPost.com)- The British Muslim who held four people hostage in a Texas synagogue two weeks ago had purchased the handgun he used in the incident from a Texas felon.
On Wednesday, Chad Meacham, US attorney for the Northern District of Texas said Henry “Michael” Williams, 32, faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Williams is accused of selling a pistol to Malik Faisal Akram on January 13. Two days later, Akram walked into the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, and held four people hostage for over ten hours until an FBI Hostage Rescue team entered the building and killed Akram.
The FBI was able to track the gun sale by reviewing phone records showing calls between Akram and Williams. The day after the hostage incident, Williams told the FBI he remembered meeting a man with an English accent. Eight days later, after Williams was arrested on an outstanding state warrant, investigators showed him a photo of Akram, and Williams confirmed he sold him the weapon at an intersection in South Dallas.
According to the complaint, Akram told Williams he needed a gun to intimidate someone who owed him money.
In 2005, Williams was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony. In 2013, he was convicted of a third-degree felony, attempted possession of a controlled substance. Because of these prior felony convictions, it was illegal for William to sell the Taurus G2C pistol to Akram.
During the 11-hour hostage standoff, Malik Faisal Akram demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani terrorist known as Lady al Qaeda who was convicted of trying to kill US Army officers.
Siddiqui was initially arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 in connection to an alleged al Qaeda plot for a mass casualty attack in the US and other places. After she was taken into custody, Saddiqui opened fire on US interrogators using an M4 rifle belonging to an Army officer. In 2010, she was convicted of this shooting and sentenced to 86 years in prison.
Siddiqui is serving out sentence not far from Colleyville in Fort Worth, Texas.
