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All Four Hostages In A Texas Synagogue Have Been Released Unharmed. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired January 15, 2022 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[23:00:00]

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Is there any idea why he chose, A, a synagogue and, B, this one?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't know exactly. We haven't heard from law enforcement officials, who've been talking to the suspect throughout the course of the day.

We did hear from one synagogue member, who said she heard in the live stream that this suspect chose this synagogue because it was closest to DFW International Airport, which is just a few miles away. And the suspect had claimed to just landed and something to that effect and chosen this area.

But you really have to come searching for this synagogue. It's a small synagogue, kind of tucked away in a residential neighborhood. I am told there is about 150 members that belong to this synagogue.

This is not a synagogue that's on a prominent boulevard here in Colleyville that's easy to see. You have to go looking for it and know it's there.

So what kind of calculations went into all of that, for the suspect to find this particular synagogue and why?

We don't know at this point. I don't know if hostage negotiators, if that's the kind of details or information they have been able to garner in their conversation with the suspect throughout the day.

HOLMES: All right, stick around as we continue to unpack what has unfolded, Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

Just past the top of the hour, welcome everyone, I am Michael Holmes.

Our breaking news out of Texas, where all remaining hostages held at that Fort Worth area synagogue are now free. There was a loud bang. Our Ed Lavandera heard it. And gunfire that was heard there in Colleyville in Texas, just under an hour ago now.

Then minutes later, the Texas governor Greg Abbott tweeted out that the hostages were alive and they were safe. That hostage situation has been going on since the morning on Saturday.

At one point there were four people, we believe, were being held. And then a few hours later, one man was released unharmed. And then moments ago all of the hostages freed and now safe.

I am joined by CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, your thoughts as to how this ended?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It ended as well as we could have hoped. As we have been saying over the course of the day, the hostage team, negotiation team, the FBI clearly felt they had some control of the situation for some period of time.

They continued to talk the assailant and they were able to get one hostage out. They felt like they had some opening for some period of time. And then when a vulnerability occurred, whether the hostage taker became agitated and got negligent or whatever, you have the team coming in, doing exactly what they had to do, getting the hostages out alive.

We don't know the status of the assailant. We'll find out very soon. This is obviously tactically about as good as it gets in a situation that's absolutely horrific for the Jewish community, for members of that temple and for the Jewish community throughout this country, that's been facing rising anti-Semitism.

And attacks on places of worship, so that is, unfortunately, a longer term solution for this country but one that, at least for today, got resolved in the best way that you could have imagined when it started earlier on Saturday.

HOLMES: Absolutely.

When it comes to law enforcement, what triggers them to go in?

What sorts of thing predicate that sort of decision?

KAYYEM: So two defining moments. One would be if they felt like that the perpetrator was becoming agitated; in other words, they've lost control of the narrative, continuing to talk with him and try to convince him that maybe they're receptive.

And he clearly wanted someone to listen to him. He was apologizing for having to threaten violence. That is an opening. That's the kind of conversations that they're having.

[23:05:00]

KAYYEM: So that would be one reason why they would go in, is if those conversations had stopped or they felt he had become too agitated and they could not control him.

The other would be simply some physical opening that would allow the FBI to go in, with a flashbang, sort of isolate the hostages from him, get them out safely. That could be anything from, he moves away from them; they're able to get out for some periods of time.

He gets tired; they know he gets tired; they have some ways of having surveillance at least audio surveillance, knowing what's going on in the room. Those would be the two triggering points.

We don't know how it unfolded but definitely incredible work by the FBI, simply being patient. I know it was hard for people; in particular, members of the congregation and those being held. But this is the resolution you want in terms that the hostages are all safe.

HOLMES: And when one hostage was released in the middle of all of this, unharmed, that obviously -- we don't know why particularly that hostage was released. But that's a good sign, too.

KAYYEM: Yes, things I was noting over the course of the day that seems like good signs -- once again -- and nothing about this is good; you are looking for the opportunity to de-escalate the situation. All you care about is protecting the hostages, who were in there -- this is their place of worship. This is where they should feel safe and they're being held hostage.

And so the fact that he said publicly sort of apologizing, the fact that he seems to not know the synagogue. So in other words he didn't have any ties there or hostility toward this particular synagogue. He didn't seem to know the geography of the area. He's relatively new. That means he does not have a network to support him. The FBI was pretty clear about that. They felt this was an individual.

Over the course of the hours, he releases a hostage. That's a good sign and then basic physical things, like exhaustion, fear, the adrenaline starts to wear off of him. These are the things that the FBI is looking and listening for, to have the opportunity to go in.

And that -- given he did not surrender himself. I do not know whether he's alive or dead at this stage. That's the secondary story. That's the good news story is that the hostages are safe.

HOLMES: Yes. As we have been saying, the apparent motivation of this hostage taker was a desire to see this person, Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of terror charges back in 2010, sentenced to 86 years in prison after opening fire on Americans.

She became a real sort of focal point for many Islamists around the world. She featured I think in one ISIS video, a poster of her.

What is obviously the risks of people like her becoming icons in the Islamist world?

We see it sort of play out here.

KAYYEM: Exactly. So part of her cult status is her gender. She is in my world one of the very few woman, who are not only are terrorists but also are arrested. So she becomes a martyr. She's being held in Texas and part of that appeal to this radicalization is she's sort of the female ISIS, the female Al Qaeda. And so she has this aura that we have been noting, those of us who

follow radicalization, have had this unusually strong appeal in radicalization. And this is the horror for the Jewish community here in the U.S. and throughout the world, is we note it and we have been noting it from the right wing.

And they also have Islamic terrorism, the focus on the Jewish community in terms of hate and, in this instance it comes from -- I would say a traditional threat, which is jihadist movement and has to be eradicated and isolated in the same way that we've -- in ways that we have to address.

Because the anti-Semitism, just by pure numbers, continues in this country and is not acceptable by all standards at this stage. So the short term, near tragedy was resolved, thankfully.

[23:10:00]

KAYYEM: The longer-term issues related to anti-Semitism in this country by many hate groups need to be highlighted and shamed and prosecuted.

HOLMES: Yes, something else you said, that sort of struck a chord, too, about how so many synagogues around the country are having to have their own security these days. The reality, of course, is these places, any church and place of worship, they're generally soft targets. It's very difficult to stop something like this.

KAYYEM: Right, so this is true for anyone who has worked with synagogues or whose family members who are apart of the synagogue. It's true for me that, after the Tree of Life incident in Pennsylvania attack and killing, most of them got fortified.

That includes things like buzzers to get into a synagogue. So this is the horror for any community of faith, in particular for synagogues, which welcome outsiders and want others to come understand the religion, is that they actually had to block people from coming in.

For any faith, being welcome is part of what your faith is. You want people to understand your faith and to understand you, especially if you are a minority faith. And the Jewish community has been deprived of that because of these hate crimes.

It's something that I know, certainly beyond and in my own life, in terms of the synagogues that I know of, in terms of the kind of security they have had to do, to protect their congregants and, of course, rabbis and staff. That's just something they, unfortunately, have gotten used to in the last couple of years.

HOLMES: Law enforcement, the sort of the people you are working with over the years, they're sadly training for this sort of thing, aren't they?

KAYYEM: Yes. So when you say soft target, that is true. But also these are the bad news aspects of the time we live in. Many of these synagogues now have strong ties to local and state law enforcement. That's good in that they have a sense of what the building looks like

and who may be in there and where certain parts of the synagogues are and where the rabbi's office may be.

So what we've seen in the United States is a sort of reachout, so law enforcement would understand what the building looks like. Because 20 years ,ago there was no reason for local police officers to wonder what it looks like inside. Now there is a better understanding of the threat environment for the synagogues.

They are soft targets and they've fortified themselves and trained themselves and they have worked with law enforcement to try to protect themselves.

I will say one of the -- you look for the silver linings in the world that we are in. One of the nice things has come out is you did get a sense that there is all this noise in the world about how we all hate each other.

But you got a sense from this congregation and from the Muslim community there, when people are sitting around in their own community, they actually get along and they reach out to each other.

And so in some ways I hope that we can model ourselves after this community, that none of us had ever heard of before today, because the congregants who've been on air all day have really welcomed the outreach of the rabbi to other communities. That's something that, in the long term, I think, will benefit every religion.

HOLMES: Yes, exactly. Juliette, thank you so much.

CNN's Evan Perez is joining me now from Washington.

What have you been hearing from your sources?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SR. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Michael, one of the things we are still trying to confirm here is what prompted this action by the rescue team. We know that they were staging in the area, they were getting ready to go in at the first sign of any trouble.

And you know they have been talking to this suspect. He's been erratic and you have to think, you know, the hostage that was released some hours ago provided the investigators with a lot of information about the status of things inside the building, the mental state that you can tell of the hostage taker.

It gave them a good sense of what they were dealing with beyond the communications and the phone communications with the hostage taker.

[23:15:00]

PEREZ: That's the information that was very, very important before they could go in and before they could try to rescue these remaining hostages.

Another thing I think is important for us to point out, the fact they went in does not mean that the communications and negotiations failed. It's the opposite. The hours-long communications between the FBI negotiator and the suspect was very important.

It bought time to keep those hostages alive. It bought time for the rescue team to get in place and to be prepared to go in. Those hours that they spent on the phone talking to him were extremely important in resolving this in a way where all four hostages were able to come out unharmed, according to the police.

Now the question now is, who is this is person?

And they're still having to do that work. They have to use the fingerprints to try to confirm his identity.

Where did he come from?

What is exactly this person's background?

And any connections at all with this community?

We don't know a lot about what was going on behind the scenes there. I think, to the FBI, a lot of that work now begins, to try to get to the bottom of how this came to pass.

HOLMES: Evan Perez, I appreciate that.

And Ed Lavandera and Juliette Kayyem, we got to take a quick break here. We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: A news conference is underway from officials in Texas. Let's listen.

CHIEF MICHAEL MILLER, COLLEYVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: -- we received a 9-1-1 call regarding a disturbance at the 6100 block of Pleasant Run, which is Congregation Beth Israel. It's our local Jewish synagogue.

At that time, they were having services being broadcast across Facebook and Zoom. We began to get information that a gunman had entered the synagogue and taken four individual hostages.

At that time, patrol resources responded to the area. We called out our SWAT team, our North Tarrant regional SWAT team, who responded. We set up a perimeter and we began to evacuate the houses that were in the local area.

We really appreciate all the people who were inconvenienced by us asking them to stay away from the area. But it was important for their safety.

At some point in time, immediately after that, we received some backup support from North Richland Hills SWAT team. I immediately, once we heard there was a hostage situation, I called the FBI. FBI special agent in charge, Matt DeSarno, came out immediately. FBI, ATF, HSI, Texas Department of Public Safety and all of our local partners all responded as well.

We've had nothing but phenomenal support from our state and local law enforcement and federal partners.

At some point in time, during the times we were negotiating with the subject for a period of time, all day, constant communication with him, he did release one hostage in the middle of the incident.

That hostage was not harmed and he's doing well now. The FBI called out the hostage rescue team, which is an elite hostage rescue force, out of Quantico, Virginia. They immediately, when the SAC called, they got on a plane and flew out here. I think they brought 60 or 70 people from Washington, D.C., to come and help with this situation.

[23:20:00]

MILLER: Some time around 9:00 pm today, this evening, the HR team, the hostage rescue team breached the synagogue. They rescued the three hostages and the subject is deceased.

I'd like to thank -- this is a success, due to the partnerships that we have with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners. It has been an incredible operation. We've had at least 200 law enforcement personnel here pretty much all day today. We could not have done it without them. And we thank them.

We thank the community as well. I am going to turn it over to SAC DeSarno, who's going to talk a little bit about -- more about the incident specifically and then we'll be here to take any questions you may have. Thank you very much.

MATTHEW DESARNO, FBI DALLAS SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Thank you, Chief Miller.

Again, my name is Matt DeSarno. I am the special agent in charge FBI Dallas. I am flanked today by my federal partners from ATF, HSI, DHS Headquarters, Texas DPS and Colleyville Police Department.

So today's results, which was four safe hostages and the situation resolved, was really a result of a long day of hard work by nearly 200 law enforcement officers from across this region, local officers across this region.

As the chief mentioned, North Richland Hills trophy club, Colleyville obviously, the FBI, ATF, HSI and Texas DPS, who you see all over this town today.

I would like to highlight a couple of things. We used the North Tarrant regional SWAT team, who started the engagement here in the morning, transitioning to Dallas FBI SWAT team and then ultimately to the hostage rescue team and the Dallas FBI SWAT team holding the perimeter. As Chief Miller said, the FBI's hostage rescue team I consider one of

the crown jewels of our organization. Their mission is to conduct deliberate hostage rescues when necessary. In this case, we had a necessity for that. And they were successful, very proud of that.

I am also extremely proud of the team and negotiators, FBI agents and local police officers, who worked all day long and engaging the subject and likely saved the lives of the subjects just through their engagement. It's very likely that this situation would end very badly early on in the day had we not had professional, consistent negotiation with the subject.

I do not have any information right now to indicates that this is any part of an ongoing threat. We obviously will continue to investigate the hostage taker and his contacts. Our investigation will have global reach. We have been in contact already with multiple FBI legates to include Tel Aviv in London.

We have been working closely with Security Community Network and the Jewish Federation. And I want to continue to do that and we will, throughout the country. We do believe from our engagement with this subject, he was singularly focused on one issue and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community.

But we'll continue to work to find motive and we'll continue on that path. In terms of the resolution of the incident, the hostage taker is deceased. We'll conduct an independent investigation. My evidence response team will be here to process the scene and a team from Washington will be here to conduct an independent investigation of the shooting incident.

And that's the way we handle those things throughout our normal, standard opening procedure.

I will warn you before we take questions that you may be frustrated at my inability to answer a whole lot of questions right now because of the ongoing investigation and the shooting incident that occurred. And I specifically will not answer specific questions about the subject.

There's a lot of information out there already about the subject and really we don't want to jeopardize any potential investigation or any investigative leads into his motives or his potential associates.

So we'll take questions at this time if anybody has them.

QUESTION: Have you identified the suspect?

QUESTION: Can you talk about why they decided to go in when they did?

DESARNO: I will answer the first question. We have identified the subject. But we are not prepared to release his identity or confirm his identity at this time.

QUESTION: Do you know why the HRT decided to go in when they did?

Did they sense something that was about to happen? DESARNO: That'll all be part of this shooting review investigation. But there was a deliberate decision making process that I participated in and the HRT command structure participated in and made entry.

QUESTION: What can you tell us about his events?

DESARNO: Sir?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

Were there any explosives?

[23:25:00]

DESARNO: I'm going to leave all that to the -- a lot of it was out on that Facebook Live stream, of what was said on that. But I am not going to add any specific information to that.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

DESARNO: What was said on the live stream, I can confirm that it was said on the live stream. But I can't confirm that the investigation to this point has given it validity at this point.

LAVANDERA: Can you give us some insights about the work negotiators did throughout the day.

Can you paint a picture of what it was like?

Was it constant communication throughout the entire day or were there ups and downs?

DESARNO: The negotiation team had a high frequency and duration of contact with him. There were times when it stopped for periods of time. And, like many hostage situations, those -- the relationship between the negotiators and hostage taker ebbed and flowed a little bit and sometimes got intense.

But these negotiators, I am so proud of them. Unbelievable work. Really incredible work for 10 hours.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

DESARNO: Yes, absolutely. The four people who were rescued are not in need of medical attention, are with FBI agents and will be reunited with their families, unharmed. He did not harm them in any way.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

DESARNO: Other than what you heard on the live stream, I am not ready to add any more about the demands. They were specifically focused on one issue that was not specifically threatening to the Jewish community. That was not the specific demand.

QUESTION: Where are the hostages now?

DESARNO: Where the hostages are now?

I can't talk about that.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) explosive devices?

DESARNO: I am not prepared to talk about that.

And one more question?

QUESTION: Does he have any ties in this area?

DESARNO: Again, that's a part of our ongoing investigation and that will come out as we move through the investigation.

Thanks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, sir.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

Talk to me about today as a human being and what it has been like, watching this play out in your own backyard.

MILLER: Well, Colleyville is one of the safest cities in Texas. This is something that you don't ever expect to have in your own city. The rabbi is a personal friend of mine. He's a close friend of mine.

And so, obviously, it's very personal, as he was -- it's been put out in the media that he was one of the hostages that was involved in this.

Yes, it's extremely personal. But I see lots of hope. And what we saw was a crisis here. But there is a lot of hope in how the community came together.

I received calls from my colleagues across the nation. I have received calls from people that I have not dealt with in many years across a lot of my career. This community, other churches have all reached out. Food has been brought. Our people have been cared for.

And so a lot of people praying today. I am a Christian and I am a believer. I activated that prayer network and we are thankful that this came to a very positive resolution.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

MILLER: I am not going to get into that at this point in time.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

MILLER: Any other questions?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

MILLER: I think that's still part of the ongoing investigation. It's still an active crime scene. So while the situation has been resolved, evidence response team from the FBI is going to be coming in and going to be processing that.

Bomb techs are clearing the scene as well. So I don't have a lot of information about that at this point.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

MILLER: Yes, all the hostages were adults.

QUESTION: Could you give us the age?

MILLER: I don't have the ages of the hostages at this time.

QUESTION: Were there any synagogue members who were inside or were able to get out when it first happened or (INAUDIBLE)?

MILLER: It's unknown at this time.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

MILLER: No, they're being interviewed by the FBI at this point.

Thank you very much.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

MILLER: No, we don't have any information about why this particular location, why this synagogue.

Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right, that news conference there, wrapping up. We did learn a few things.

[23:30:00]

HOLMES: Perhaps chiefly, the suspect is dead. We also heard that, from the FBI, he's been identified but they are yet not saying who he is. It was around 9:00 pm local time when the hostage rescue team breached the synagogue, went in, obviously engaged the suspect, who was killed.

The three hostages who remained inside the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, were brought out safe and well. The FBI Dallas office saying it was a result of a long day of hard work by nearly 200 officers from across the region.

He said it's likely this situation would have ended badly if not for the skills of negotiators. He described the negotiations as high frequency and high duration; they did stop from time to time. He said the relationship ebbed and flowed and it was intense at times. They're going to be investigating the suspect, his contacts. The FBI

says that'll be a global investigation, a global effort, he said. They are processing the scene right now, gathering evidence. There was a lot of stuff they would not talk about but we have learned a fair bit from that news conference.

I want to bring in CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer to join me.

Bob, you were listening to that.

What did you learn from what you heard?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think the negotiators were listening to him very carefully. And they probably at some point decided that he was unstable and that the hostages were in some sort of imminent threat and then they launched the breaching.

And as we know, there was a loud explosion and that was probably a flashbang grenade. And in a situation like this, they automatically open up fire. There is no other way. We used to call it a combat entry.

I think they did what they were supposed to. It sounds so far to me, from the news reports, that he was a lone wolf. This was not particularly well planned out. He was not, didn't try to resist in any way that we know about. The hostage rescue, one person.

He probably -- there was no other people involved at this point and he did not set up any traps for the hostage rescue team.

He was believed apparently in this conspiracy theory that Aafia Siddiqui was framed and was not guilty as charged and convicted.

But this has been a conspiracy on the internet for a very long time and there is no truth to it. And he was just motivated and I would guess he's probably an unstable person and certainly not part of a larger network. That could change when the evidence comes in, though.

HOLMES: Yes, we heard the FBI say that they'll be investigating his contacts and said that would be a global effort.

What do you make from that?

BAER: Well, they'll do traces, for instance, in Pakistan, where Siddiqui was from; from Pakistan, as much as they can in Dubai, to see if he's part of a larger network. What they are really worried about is an imminent threat against other targets of the United States.

Until you actually go through his phone and metadata, you don't know that. They just have to expect the worst, that more attacks could follow.

HOLMES: What I'm gathered to be the focus of the investigations, in situations like this they'll be -- as you say, social media contacts, internet postings and all that. What else?

BAER: Travel; was there any international connection? Was he in Afghanistan?

Is he part of the Islamic State, for instance? And was he -- does have anybody in his network?

They don't know that. So they'll pull out all the stops and there will be thousands of people, including the CIA, involved in this investigation. But lone wolves will continue to appear as this guy is, probably at this point, we have to believe that. But they don't know that.

HOLMES: You mentioned Aafia Siddiqui, convicted on terror charges back in 2010, sentenced to 86 years for opening fire on Americans and how she's become a sort of focal figure, a cause celebre in the Islamist community.

What are the risks of people like her attaining that sort of status within the community?

[23:35:00]

HOLMES: And particularly among those who are willing to go and take actions?

BAER: The bad news is, they truly believed she was framed and was not guilty of opening fire on American soldiers and FBI agents.

It is nonsense, because there's a lot of witnesses and the question is, what was she doing in Afghanistan in 2008?

Why did she abandon her children?

She was highly educated but her lawyer said she should not have been in prison; she should be in a mental institution because she's crazy. That's what her own lawyer said.

But this is not what the community believes. They are driven by conspiracy theories and this is what causes people to act.

HOLMES: Yes, the FBI said that he was singularly focused on one issue, not specifically related to the Jewish community. We do know Siddiqui, at her trial and throughout all of her activities, was fiercely anti- Semitic, anti-Jewish. She demanded that there be no Jews on her jury. So there is obviously some connection.

Do you think why this synagogue was picked?

BAER: Absolutely. I think this whole movement shaves off into anti- Semitism and it's very easy for that to happen. It goes way back to Israel and the fact that this is, in their minds, Israel is a Western conspiracy and an American conspiracy. And the Jewish community in the United States, around the world, is somehow responsible for this. Of course, there is no truth to it at all. You know with our going

into Afghanistan or Iraq had nothing to do with the Jewish community in this country or anyone else. But again, these people are driven by conspiracy theories and they are looking at these overarching plots.

And so synagogues become natural targets all through the United States and, unfortunately, there is no way police can protect them all. They're very vulnerable.

HOLMES: That's my next question.

How do you deal with what are -- not always easy targets; many of these places have some security but they're not tough targets, either.

BAER: We have seen this in New Zealand. And there is a couple of guys at the front door. I mean we are not in a position in this country to put people with assault weapons in front of churches and synagogues. That's the unfortunate thing.

And there is nothing the FBI do can predict somebody who's insane -- and they can easily get a hold of guns -- and believes in these conspiracy theories, these lone wolves. There is not much they could do about it, except react very quickly, which they did and they did exactly as they should have, sent the hostage rescue team in and used overwhelming force to take somebody like this down. This is the only way you can do it.

HOLMES: And from an intel perspective, how difficult is it to get tabs on somebody like this before they act?

We don't hear about what the intelligence community has managed to stop and that's a fairly considerable amount.

What are they looking for?

BAER: People are going through -- for instance, purchasing the gun and then immediately getting on websites, they know where websites are but there are so many people searching these websites, including journalists and everybody else.

I look at them occasionally. But that does not mean anybody is going to act on this. For somebody, when this conversion occurs in their mind, when they have to resort to violence, it could be overnight or a week before.

These people know, so many of them, they are being watched in a sense. And they don't announce what they're going to do on Facebook.

HOLMES: Indeed. Bob Baer, thank you, I appreciate your expertise on this.

We'll take a quick break here. We'll be right back with more.

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HOLMES: Returning to our breaking news, the end of the hostage standoff in Texas, the three remaining hostages are all released safely. The suspect has been killed by law enforcement. CNN's Ed Lavandera is on the scene for us in Texas.

I believe --

No, he's not there. We'll continue about this now. What we heard was that news conference before we went to break. It was instructive in many ways. Colleyville Chief Michael Miller made a point, saying that Colleyville is one of the safest cities in Texas and this is not the sort of thing you would expect.

The hostage rescue team went in around 9 pm local time. We've been told that he has been identified but authorities will not say who is and did not announce why they went in when they did. Juliette Kayyem is still here with us.

Your take on what you heard?

KAYYEM: So the story is the suspect is dead. But still a couple of big unknowns and they're not identifying him yet. I think they just want to ensure that there is no one who -- there may be other people they're looking for. And they did mention international investigation at this stage in particular, given what his motive clearly was.

[23:45:00]

KAYYEM: This is going to take them to places, as they said, like Israel and London and Pakistan. The second is why they went in at that time, about 9:00 pm. It's not clear what triggered it and not necessary to know at this stage.

Were they worried he was becoming agitated or seeing some opening?

Because it had been so long. They were unable to sustain the situation. We'll find it out.

I thought, just so people know actually how these things work, it was clear 60 members of this hostage teams, other agencies, were on a plane within an hour heading to Texas. When you talk about 200 people in law enforcement supporting this effort, that's how they are able to sustain sort of clear focus on him.

They think it's clear that he was acting alone in this incident. We don't know if his radicalization came from an organized group or Siddiqui, who he was supporting, we know that now, he became animated and radicalized because she's such a cause celebre on the internet and radical chat rooms.

So that's where the investigation will continue. There is still a lot to learn, though. HOLMES: I thought the FBI, saying likely the situation would have

ended badly if not for the skills of negotiators, he said the duration of negotiations, relationship ebbed and flowed and at times was intense.

What did you make of that?

KAYYEM: So this is what we call extending the runway. That's their goal. I live in the world of cable news, so we want immediate answers and we want news to go quick.

What they're trying to do is the exact opposite. They're trying to extend the runway. That's going to give the FBI more opportunities to either stop him or convince him to change his stance and convince him to give up one hostage and potentially others.

What you saw over the course of the day and these sort of glimmers we heard, the suspect, who's now dead, enters the synagogue and said he apologizes but then he does some ranting, lets a hostage out. So they're just trying to extend the runway.

Time gives them multiple options so the notion that you wanted this to end, they just didn't have any transparency likely where the hostages is.

So from their perspective, the more time they could get from the hostage taker, the more they could exhaust him and the more that they could tell them that they were listening and the more they could get him to concede certain things and understand how this was likely to end.

It was only going to end in two ways and this was the better way, that the hostages were safe. And that's what they did. To be honest, over the course of the day, the longer it lasted, the happier I got, feeling what I know about the FBI, they knew that the time was allowing them a way in, based on whatever vulnerability he was exposing to them orally and physically, in terms of his own exhaustion and the ability to contain any hostages.

HOLMES: Great analysis. Stick around, Juliette, as you have for hours now, we really appreciate it.

Ed Lavandera has been on the scene for hours. I heard your voice during that news conference. Tell us what you heard.

LAVANDERA: I was rather struck by just how much information about the ending of this hostage situation that is still unclear at this point.

You guys have done an amazing job, talking over and about the hostage negotiation process, which I thought was very insightful, to really give us a sense of what it was like for hostage negotiators throughout the course of the day.

[23:50:00]

LAVANDERA: This is an event that lasted nearly 11 hours and ending just after 9:00 o'clock Central time here.

There is still a lot that we don't know. We don't know the name of the suspect. Authorities here telling us tonight they have identified the person but they are not ready to release the suspect's identity.

And then just exactly how it all ended, unable to say whether it was -- there was an exchange of gunfire, if the suspect was firing at the hostage rescue team that was going inside the synagogue and who killed or how the gunman or the suspect was killed.

And all of those details still very much up in the air. At this point, clearly what is sending waves of relief throughout the community here in Colleyville is that all four hostages that were held in this synagogue for the better part of the day are all home safe.

They're alive. They're not in need of medical, physical attention but the ordeal they have endured here today is probably not close to settling in at this point.

So you know, the trauma of what they have been through is something that I think many members of this congregation are really starting to focus on now here and especially coming up in the days ahead for all the people that were involved.

HOLMES: Yes. What we didn't get, either, was really a -- and it was curious, too, try to find what the FBI agent said. He said that the suspect was singularly focused on one issue not specifically related to the Jewish community, which I found curious because apparently the dead suspect was wanting to speak to this Aafia Siddiqui, convicted on terror charges in 2010, serving 86 years in prison and fiercely anti- Semitic.

We have lost Ed Lavandera, unfortunately. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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[23:55:00]

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HOLMES: Well, the Australian Open tennis tournament starts on Monday and we are still waiting to hear whether top ranked player Novak Djokovic will indeed be allowed to play or instead be deported.

At this hour, federal judges in Australia, who have been hearing his appeal about his canceled visa, are deliberating. It's Djokovic's last attempt to stay in the country after that visa was canceled for the second time over concerns he could spur a rise in anti-vaccine sentiment. We'll have a lot more of this in the next hour.

Meanwhile, thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. Our breaking news coverage continues after the break.