Rabbi in Texas synagogue standoff: ‘We were fearful the whole time’

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who was held hostage in an 11-hour standoff at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Tex., last weekend, told reporters on Friday that he and the three others feared for their lives during the entire ordeal, even as they constantly tried to find a way to escape their armed captor.

Video Transcript

- You believe in your statement just now that you had said when it got to that point at the end, you became very, very fearful for your life.

- Yes.

- Have you not been in that situation, I would assume from the very beginning, you would be very, very fearful for your life. Can you kind of go through the emotions you and the other individuals-- would you kind of went through that day as it started and progress through the day? And that was a long time to be in such a stressful environment.

- I would just say that we were fearful the whole time, right. It's hard not to be with someone with a gun in their hand you know kind of pointing it at you the whole time. The first you know hour or so hour, hour and a half was-- was extremely, extremely upsetting, extremely, extremely terrifying.

And there was a long period of calm conversation of again, once-- you know, he was talking with us. He wasn't yelling at us and we were able to have conversation. He was certainly-- right. We were constantly looking, right. We were constantly looking for an opportunity to leave and it was very, very hard to find an opportunity where we all could leave.

All right. That was-- right, that was kind of something in all of our minds, right. None of us could imagine one person going and leaving the others behind. And so it took a very long time and we were very fortunate in many ways, right. And when the opportunity presented itself, we were able to take advantage of it. But it was pretty-- it was pretty on edge all day.