F.B.I. director calls Texas synagogue attack an act of antisemitism Christopher A. Wray said the hostage taker targeted the Jewish community, contrary to the agency’s initial statement.

(NY Times) The F.B.I. is treating the attack on a suburban Fort Worth synagogue on Saturday as “an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community,” Christopher A. Wray, the bureau’s director, said on Thursday.

“This was not some random occurrence,” Mr. Wray told viewers of a webinar hosted by the Anti-Defamation League. “It was intentional, it was symbolic and we’re not going to tolerate antisemitism in this country.”

The bureau initially said that the attacker, a British citizen named Malik Faisal Akram, was not driven by antisemitism when he held four people at the synagogue hostage for 11 hours. At a news conference on Saturday night after all four hostages were free, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Dallas field office, Matthew DeSarno, said Mr. Akram was motivated by an issue “not specifically related to the Jewish community.”

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