Cops kill two gunmen at 'draw Muhammad' event sponsored by group in 'killing Jews' ad case
Police in Garland, Texas, shot and killed two men who fired guns at a security guard outside a “draw Muhammad” event on Sunday evening that was sponsored by an anti-Islam group.
One of the gunmen has been identified as Elton Simpson, a Phoenix man who was previously the subject of a terrorism investigation, report the New York Times and the Dallas Morning News. The second suspect reportedly had been a roommate of Simpson’s, the Morning News says, citing a report by KPNX-TV.
A judge previously acquitted Simpson of a plot to travel to Somalia to engage in “violent jihad,” but found him guilty of lying to a federal agent, the Times says.
The security guard, Bruce Joiner, was treated at a hospital for an ankle wound and was released. The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) also have coverage, while the Daily Beast has a story by a reporter who was at the event.
The event offered a $10,000 prize for the best caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
The sponsor of the contest, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, is an anti-Islam group that has been in the news for past legal battles. The group sought to block a mosque from being built near the world Trade Center and more recently fought to run a satirical “killing Jews” ad on New York buses and subways, the Wall Street Journal points out.
The ad shows a man wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh with the quotation, “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah,” Below the photo, the ad reads, “That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?” The ad was intended to parody an earlier ad campaign by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, which portrayed jihad as a nonviolent struggle.
A federal judge ruled that the ad was protected speech that can’t be banned. After the ruling, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted to ban all political ads.
Updated at 10:05 a.m. to include Times coverage of Simpson.
