Texas shooting: gunman was under FBI surveillance

One of the gunmen who opened fire at an event in Texas featuring cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed had been under FBI surveillance for almost a decade, court documents have revealed.

Elton Simpson and his roommate Nadir Hamid Soofi were killed after they opened fire on security guards outside the rally in the city of Garland, which was billed as a promotion of freedom of expression but was described by others as an "anti-Islam" event.

The two men were shot dead when one of the security officers returned fire. The other officer suffered minor injuries.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

A police investigation is now underway, with authorities investigating links between the two gunmen and Islamic State, Reuters reports.

Simpson, a convert to Islam, had been under FBI surveillance since 2006 and in 2010 was convicted of lying to federal agents about a planned trip to Somalia to wage jihad. However, the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence that he was involved with international terrorism, and Simpson was sentenced to three years' probation and a fine.

Described as "quiet and devout", Simpson was on the FBI's radar because of his links to an individual thought to be involved in setting up a terrorist cell in Arizona, but federal authorities said they had no evidence he was planning an attack, The Guardian reports.

Soofi appears to have no previous convictions and his mother said there was never any indication he would turn to violence. "I don't know if something snapped or if Elton Simpson was just working on him," Sharon Soofi told the Dallas Morning News.

This is the latest in a number of deadly attacks related to the controversial depiction of the Prophet Mohammed. The event's organisers said it was aimed at promoting freedom of expressions, but they have been criticised for deliberately stirring up religious tensions.

The 'Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest' offered a $10,000 prize for the best drawing of the Prophet. Cartoonist Bosch Fawstin won for his depiction of a sword-wielding Mohammed in a turban shouting: "You can't draw me!"

Many locals said the exhibition "wasn't really about freedom of speech - it was an anti-Islam event", the BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports. It was organised by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an organisation branded a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Its founder, Pamela Geller, was banned from entering the UK in 2013 after she planned to attend a far-right English Defence League rally in London.