SUICIDE BY COP:

"He did not come there to kill Jews ... He came here to release [Aafia Siddiqui], and he had bought into the extremely dangerous, antisemitic trope that Jews control everything, that we could call President [Joe] Biden and have him release her," Jeffrey Cohen said in an interview over Zoom. [...]

After those first 30 minutes though, Akram calmed down and focused on trying to release his "sister" Siddiqui.

"He had one objective. He repeatedly said that he didn't want to hurt us... that he would let us go, that he was the only one who was going to die... and that if the police brought his sister there, he and she would go out on the front lawn and let the authorities kill him. He kept speaking about martyrdom. He was the only one who needed to die that day," Cohen said. "He told us that he chose the closest synagogue to the facility where [Siddiqui was] being held."

Referencing a statement issued by Akram's brother on Sunday in which the latter insisted the gunman suffered from mental health issues, Cohen said he "believe[d] that to be true."

Regardless, the hostage recalled the attacker railing against people of varying races, sexual orientations and religions -- including fellow Muslims.

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