They included the synagogue’s rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker. “I am grateful that we made it out. I am grateful to be alive,” he said. 

Rabbi Cytron-Walker said Akram had become “increasingly belligerent and threatening” towards the end of the standoff.

He said the security training his congregation has previously received helped them “flee when the situation presented itself.”

There was a sombre silence across Colleyville on Sunday, a town of 26,000 people around 25 miles northwest of Dallas.

Many of the town’s residents – who had been evacuated for much of Saturday – stayed shut up indoors as the heavy police presence remained in force around the Congregation Beth Israel. 

Phil, a retired airline worker, and his wife have lived in the town for 25 years. He said he was still coming to terms with what had happened. 

“They used to say this is the safest town in Texas,” he said, shaking his head. He had heard the flash bangs go off yesterday evening. “It’s shocking, it’s really shocking”. 

Jennifer Newell, a 35-year-old member of the Pleasant Run Baptist Church, which sits across the synagogue, was counting her blessings. 

Had it not been an unseasonably windy day, Ms Newell and her husband would have been coaching the church’s youth baseball team a stone’s throw from where the stand-off was unfolding. 

“I can only imagine [what might have happened],” she said. “I call them my children. Just the thought of them being over there when all this happened, it’s very scary.” 

The cold wind endured on Sunday, but Ms Newell had braved the chills to come and change the church’s outdoor sign.

“Pray for our brothers and sisters,” it now reads, an American flag fluttering in the wind beside it.