America
Gunmen open fire at Prophet cartoon contest venue in US, killed
By
By Arun KumarWashington, May 4
In what was probably the
first such attack on American soil, two gunmen opened fire outside the
venue of a controversial cartoon contest on Prophet Mohammed in Texas on
Sunday, only to be killed themselves as police returned fire.
None
of the approximately 200 people attending the event billed as the
"Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest" in Garland, northeast of
Dallas, were hurt in the attack for which Islamic State militants are
reported to have claimed responsibility.
Citing a federal law
enforcement source, one of the suspects was identified by CNN as Elton
Simpson, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, who was convicted in 2011 of a
terror-related charge.
Simpson is believed to have sent a tweet
before the attack that read, in part, "May Allah accept us as
mujahideen," the source cited by CNN said. It bore the hashtag
#texasattack.
FBI agents raided Simpson's home in Phoenix on Monday morning. They are working to collect evidence, CNN said citing FBI.
FBI
and local officials in Garland were also checking the gunmen's vehicle
for explosives, and the area around the venue was blocked off.
The
attack bears similarities to attacks this year on events in France and
Denmark featuring images of Prophet Mohammed, which Muslims believe are
blasphemous.
The keynote speaker at the event, organised by the
American Freedom Defence Initiative (AFDI), was right-wing Dutch
politician Geert Wilders, who was placed on an Al Qaeda hit list, CNN
said.
According to police, two men drove up to the Curtis Culwell
Centre in Garland, got out of their car and began shooting just as the
contest inside was ending around 7 p.m.
An unarmed security guard, Bruce Joiner, was shot in the ankle. He was later treated at a hospital and released, police said.
Garland
police, who were helping with security, fired back, killing both
gunmen. The exchange lasted about 15 seconds, police said.
"The
first suspect was shot immediately," Garland Mayor Douglas Athas told
CNN. "The second suspect was wounded and reached for his backpack. He
was shot again."
"We have no other indication that anyone else was involved," Athas said.
Sunday
night's event invited cartoonists to send in caricatures of Prophet
Mohammed. The group said it received more than 350 submissions. The
winning entry was to get $10,000.
"The Islamic jihadis are
determined to suppress our freedom of speech violently," AFDI president
Pamela Geller told CNN. "They struck in Paris and Copenhagen recently,
and now in Texas."
In January, 12 people were murdered by two
Islamist gunmen at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which
had published cartoons on the Prophet.
The following month, a
gathering of free speech activists in the Danish capital Copenhagen was
targeted by a gunman, killing a film director.
In 2006, Danish
newspaper Jyllands-Posten had published cartoons satirising Prophet
Mohammed, triggering riots around the world in which at least 200 people
are believed to have died, as well as attacks on several Western
embassies.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])