An Arizona man was identified as one of two suspected shooters who attacked a “Draw Mohammed” event in Texas, according to a broadcast report on Monday.
Phoenix resident Elton Simpson had previously been the target of a terror probe before trying to shoot his way into the politically charged art show and conference in Garland, Texas, on Sunday night, ABC News reported, citing a senior FBI official.
Police returned fire, killing Simpson and his accomplice.
FBI agents and a bomb squad were at Simpson’s home in an apartment complex in north Phoenix. Agents sent a robot into his apartment to conduct an initial search.
Officials believe Simpson sent several Twitter messages prior to the Sunday attack, the last one including the hashtag #TexasAttack about half an hour before the shooting, ABC reported.
ISIS had been sending messages about the event in Texas for more than a week, calling for attacks. One referenced January’s Charlie Hebdo massacre in France and said it was time for “brothers” in the United States to do their part.
Simpson had been on the FBI’s radar for a decade. Agents even hired an informant at Simpson’s mosque to find if he had any terrorist plans, according to court records.
Simpson was recorded telling the informant he had wanted to travel to Somalia, via South Africa, to join radical fighters, federal agents said.
“People fighting and killing your kids, and dropping bombs on people that have nothing to do with nothing,” Simpson allegedly told the informant. “You got to fight back, you can’t be just sitting down.”
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FBI agents view the area where the shooting suspects lie behind a blue covering.Photo: Getty Images
Simpson was sentenced to three years’ probation.
The FBI is combing through files on Simpson’s known associates in Phoenix and elsewhere, ABC said, but so far there has been no public information on the accomplice’s identity.
Two accounts were tweeting threats prior to the event, according to Fox News Channel.
An account with the name “Shariah is Light” posted a #texasattack message at 6:35 p.m. Central Time, Fox News reported. The account, which has since been deleted, showed a photo of Anwar Awlaki, an American-born cleric killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
The user wrote, “May Allah accept us as mujahideen,” the Los Angeles Times reported. Just minutes later, two armed men attacked the “Draw Mohammed” event, which was sponsored by Pamela Geller, a New York woman who has crusaded to post anti-Islam ads on subways and buses.
The gunmen jumped out of their vehicle at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland at 7 p.m. and shot a security guard. They were quickly gunned down by cops, who were among a group of 40 security personnel hired to protect the event.
“Shariah is Light” also tweeted an order to follow a second account, called “AbuHussainAlBritani,” which also posted messages about the shooting and appeared to tie it to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, Fox News reported.
“The knives have been sharpened, soon we will come to your streets with death and slaughter!” a message read.
A second tweet said: “Allahu Akbar!!!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire at the Prophet Muhammad art exhibition in texas!”
The third message read: “Kill Those That Insult The Prophet,” Fox News reported.
Garland city officials wrote on Facebook: “Both males were armed and began shooting at a Garland ISD security officer. Garland police officers engaged the gunmen, who were both shot and killed.”
The injured guard, Bruce Joiner, was shot in the leg and treated at a hospital, where he was released just two hours later, according to WFAA-TV.
The identity and motives of the gunmen were not revealed Sunday night, but organizers of the event called the shooting an attack on free speech.
“This incident shows how much needed our event really was,” Geller said in a message to The Post while on lockdown inside the center. “The freedom of speech is under violent assault here in our nation. The question now before us is — will we stand and defend it, or bow to violence, thuggery and savagery?”
She had earlier tweeted, “This is war on free speech.”
Johnny Roby of Oklahoma City, who was attending the conference, said he was outside when he heard about 20 shots.
No one was allowed to leave the facility for hours. Some businesses in the area were evacuated in case there was any threat to the people inside.
A bomb squad was brought in to inspect the gunmen’s pickup.
While stuck inside the Curtis Culwell Center, Geller — who runs the American Freedom Defense Initiative — and others sang patriotic songs and saluted the American flag.
Because of the sensitive nature of the event — officially called the Mohammed Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest — Geller’s organization was required by the city to hire the large additional security force, which cost $10,000, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Depictions of Muhammad are considered blasphemous by many Muslims. In January, 12 people were killed in Paris when gunmen stormed a satirical newspaper that lampooned Islam’s holiest figure.
To lure participants to the event, Geller’s group offered $10,000 to the person who could present the “best depiction” of the Prophet.
One speaker at the event, far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, has been declared “Wanted: Dead or Alive” by al Qaeda’s English-language magazine, Inspire.
Wilders has called for a ban on the Muslim holy book, the Quran, and has been quoted as saying, “I don’t hate Muslims, I hate Islam.”
Geller appeared on CNN on Monday morning and got into a testy exchange with anchor Alisyn Camerota, who asked if the conference — especially Wilders’ rhetoric — was unnecessarily provocative.
“You’re bringing it up with these silly distractions. No one is saying that there aren’t peaceful Muslims,” Geller said. “But there is a problem in Islam, as illustrated last night, and anyone that addresses it gets attacked in this same way.”
Geller said Sunday night could have easily turned into America’s Charlie Hebdo attack.
“You should be directing your barbs at the enforcers of the Sharia and those that seek to … to destroy and crush freedom of speech the way they did in Paris, and in Copenhagen,” Geller said.
“People need to wake up and we need to take a firm stance of freedom of speech and we will not abridge our freedom so as not to offend savages. And this is really, I think, the battle between freedom and slavery. It is that basic.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li and Sophia Rosenbaum
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