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Cytron-Walker may not have known immediately that Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was a British national. Akram had arrived in the US via New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in late December, a US law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN.
In the two weeks before he met Cytron-Walker, Akram had spent three nights — January 6, 11 and 13 — at a Dallas homeless shelter, according to Union Gospel Mission Dallas CEO Bruce Butler. He was very quiet and wasn’t there long enough to build any relationships, Butler said.
Over their shared tea, Cytron-Walker and Akram talked, the rabbi said.
“Some of his story didn’t quite add up, so I was a little bit curious, but that’s not necessarily an uncommon thing,” said the rabbi, who soon that day would lead a religious service for the 157 membership families of his congregation, established in 1999.
The rabbi pointed Jeffrey Cohen, the vice president on the synagogue’s board of trustees, to their guest that day. Cohen went over and introduced himself, he wrote in a Facebook post describing his experience.
“He was on the phone, but briefly stopped his conversation,” Cohen said. “He said hello, smiled, and after we introduced ourselves, I let him go back to his call. He seemed calm and happy to be in from the frigid 20 degree morning. His eyes weren’t darting around; his hands were open and calm, he said hello, he smiled.”
As the rabbi led the prayers — his back turned as he faced toward Jerusalem — he heard a click. It came from the stranger.
“And it turned out, that it was his gun,” Cytron-Walker said.
Cohen said he heard that same click, the “unmistakable sound of an…
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Source : cnn
