Garland shooter bought pistol through ATF’s controversial gun running sting to track drug cartels
A gunman killed during his attack on an Islamic prophet Muhammad art show in Garland, Texas, reportedly bought a pistol through a botched federal firearm sting.
Nadir Soofi bought a 9-mm pistol at a Phoenix gun shop in 2010, one report said, that sold illegal firearms through ATF’s heavily criticized Operation Fast and Furious to track firearms back to Mexican drug cartels.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee wants to know if that same pistol was used five years later in an alleged Islamic State-sanctioned shootout targeting right-wing blogger Pamela Geller’s event, according to a memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
The letter is addressed to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch from Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.
Both shooters, Soofi and his roommate, Elton Simpson, were armed with assault rifles and killed in the May 3 gunfight that ensued with Garland police.
Since that attack, the FBI and DOJ has failed to produce serial numbers for the firearms used by Soofi and Simpson instilling the fear that the operation resulted in yet another instance of domestic violence, the LA Times reported.
A week-long hold was also placed on Soofi’s gun purchase, but authorities lifted it after only a day, the Times added.
The ATF operation ended a month after two guns obtained through the sting were used in a 2010 gunfight with Mexican bandits that killed Brian Terry, an agent with the Border Patrol’s elite tactical team working along the Mexican border in Arizona.
The revelation that a Department of Justice operation let about 1,400 firearms go missing in the hands of drug cartels and gangs put a hiccup in Eric Holder stint as attorney general.
Though the sting resulted in 34 indictments, the scandal’s aftermath resulted in several resignations and a House of Representative vote to hold Holder in criminal contempt when he refused to release documents tied to the gun running scheme.
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