(AP) The man who took hostages at a Texas synagogue sought to buy drugs and a “machine gun” before the standoff last month that ended with the hostages escaping and the gunman’s death, an FBI agent said in court Wednesday.
The testimony came during a detention hearing for the Dallas man accused of selling Malik Faisal Akram the handgun he used in his attack on Congregation Beth Israel in the suburb of Colleyville. A federal magistrate ordered the alleged seller, Henry “Michael” Williams, detained ahead of his trial on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Williams, 32, was arrested less than two weeks after the standoff ended with an FBI tactical team rushing into the synagogue and fatally shooting Akram just as the hostages made their escape. Authorities said Williams confessed to selling Akram, a 44-year-old British national, the previously stolen pistol.
