ABC news, citing an FBI official, said Monday that agents had raided an apartment in Phoenix, Arizona thought to belong to Elton Simpson, allegedly one of the slain gunmen. Court documents seen by AFP show Simpson was sentenced to three years probation in 2011 for lying to federal agents investigating him on suspicion of planning to travel to Somalia to fight with jihadists.
The White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the investigation, which Texas police said was ongoing. "There is no form of expression that justifies an act of violence," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Commentators were quick to draw parallels to a January shooting at the French weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris that killed 12 people and wounded 11 more.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group listed by civil rights watchdog the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-Muslim hate group, had organized the event in Garland, a suburb of Dallas. At the event, attended by Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders and AFDI co-founder Pamela Geller, supporters held an exhibition of entries to a competition to draw cartoon caricatures. Muslims find drawings of the holy prophet (PBUH) to be disrespectful or outright blasphemous, and such cartoons have been cited by Islamists as motivation in several previous attacks.
Police said two men, wearing body armour and toting assault rifles, drove up to the conference, jumped out and opened fire on an unarmed security guard. Garland police spokesman Joe Harn told reporters the guard was shot in the ankle and that a traffic police officer in the vicinity responded, taking down the two better-armed assailants. "With what he was faced with and his reaction and his shooting with a pistol, he did a good job," Harn said. "And under the fire that he was put under, he did a very good job. And probably saved lives." A SWAT team on duty to provide back-up security for the highly controversial event secured the area, and bomb squad officers confirmed that there were no explosives in the car.
On Twitter, jihadist Abu Hussain Al-Britani, who the private terror watchdog SITE identified as British IS fighter Junaid Hussain, described the gunmen as "two of our brothers." About 200 people were present at the event in Garland. US Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, who also is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, deplored the attack by what he called "fanatics." "From the capitals of Europe to the streets of Garland, Texas, we have been confronted by attackers who cannot tolerate our open society," he said. AFDI had offered a $10,000 prize for the winner of the cartoon contest that had been billed as a "free speech" event.