Traffic cop killed both attackers at Mohammed exhibit in Texas

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[h=4]Traffic cop killed both attackers at Mohammed exhibit in Texas[/h]The search for explosives continued Monday after two men were shot and killed outside a provocative contest for cartoon depictions of the prophet Muhammad Sunday night. Garland's city

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A security guard was injured and two gunmen were shot dead outside a provocative contest for cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. VPC


FBI agents view evidence at the Curtis Culwell Center on May 4, 2015 in Garland,Texas.(Photo: Jared L. Christopher, AFP/Getty Images)


GARLAND, Texas — Two men armed with assault rifles and poised to storm an event featuring cartoons of the prophet Mohammed were fatally shot by a traffic cop who probably saved many lives, police said Monday.
One of the attackers had been convicted of terrorism-related charges in 2011 after telling an FBI informant he wanted to leave the U.S. to fight non-Muslims.
Police spokesman Joe Harn said the officer who killed both attackers was a traffic officer who "did what he was trained to do."
"Under the fire he was put under, he did a very good job and probably saved lives," Harn said. "We think their strategy was to get into the event center, but they were not able to get past the outer perimeter."
The Mohammed Art Exhibit event at the Curtis Culwell Center was coming to a close Sunday night when the suspects drove up to a parking lot entrance blocked by a patrol car. The suspects got out of their car and started shooting, Harn said.
A security guard and police officer got out of the patrol car, and the guard, who was not armed, was shot in the leg, Harn said. The police officer fatally shot both suspects with his duty pistol, Harn added.
The security officer, a Garland Independent School District employee, was identified as Bruce Joiner. He was treated at a hospital and released.
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The exhibit was placed on lockdown and attendees later moved to a nearby high school while the car and nearby areas were checked for explosives. None were found, Harn said.
The FBI said the two suspects once lived in an apartment in Phoenix, and federal agents began searching that complex. Harn declined to name the suspects, however a federal law enforcement official not authorized to speak publicly about the case identified one of the suspects as Elton Simpson.
Simpson, 30, was sentenced to three years probation in August 2011, following his conviction for making false statements in a Phoenix terrorism investigation. Beginning in 2009, the FBI was investigating whether Simpson and some of his associates were planning travel to Somalia to join jihad waged by the terror group Al-Shabaab.
"It's time, I'm telling you, man,'' Simpson said in a May 2009 recorded conversation with an FBI informant. "We gonna make it to the battlefield…it's time to roll.''
A group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative hosted the Mohammed Cartoon Exhibit and $10,000 cartoon contest.
The exhibit featured "images of Islam's prophet, both historic and contemporary, and speeches by leading voices of freedom and internationally renowned free speech advocates," according to a press release by the group.

Heavily armed police at the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, May 3, 2015.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Larry W. Smith, EPA)

Such drawings are deemed insulting to many followers of Islam and have sparked violence around the world. According to mainstream Islamic tradition, any physical depiction of the prophet Mohammed — even a respectful one — is considered blasphemous.
Dutch politician Geert Wilders, known for advocating a ban on the Kuran, was a keynote speaker at the event.
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The American Freedom Defense Initiative, and its president, Pam Geller, are known for mounting a campaign against the building of an Islamic center blocks from the World Trade Center site and for buying advertising space in cities across the U.S. criticizing Islam.
"This is a war,'' she posted on her website PamellaGeller.com. "This is war on free speech. What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters?''
In January, 12 people were killed by gunmen in an attack against the Paris office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had lampooned Islam and other religions and used depictions of Mohammed.
Contributing: William M. Welch and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
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