Police and FBI on Monday searched the Arizona apartment of one of two gunmen shot dead on Sunday after they allegedly opened fire with assault rifles outside a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Police in Garland, Texas, said they had planned security for months around the250 controversial exhibit and contest, and that a bomb squad, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a SWAT team and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were all in place on Sunday night in case of any incidents.
Police worked with the FBI to determine if the attack was a terrorist incident. No bombs were found in the attackers’ car, police said.
The incident in the Dallas suburb was an echo of past attacks or threats in other Western countries against art depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
In January, gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what it said was revenge for its cartoons. Four others were also killed at a kosher market in the city.
Citing a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official, ABC News identified one of the gunmen as Elton Simpson, an Arizona man who was the target of a terror investigation. FBI agents and a bomb squad were searching Simpson’s Phoenix home, ABC said.
Phoenix’s KPHO TV reported an unidentified second man lived in the same complex as Simpson, the Autumn Ridge Apartments. It was not immediately clear whether the two men lived in the same apartment.
The event in Garland, Texas, organised by American Freedom Defence Initiative (AFDI), was called “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” and offered a $10,000 prize for the best artwork or cartoon depicting the Prophet.
Geert Wilders a guest
The event featured speakers including Geert Wilders, a polarising Dutch politician and anti-Islamic campaigner who is on an al-Qaeda hit list.
The AFDI, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, has among other activities sponsored anti-Islamic advertising campaigns in transit systems across the country.
ABC News said officials believed Simpson sent out tweets ahead of the attack, with the last one using the hashtag #texasattack.