One Gunman in Garland, TX ‘Muhammad Art & Cartoon Contest’ Shooting Identified … Elton Simpson, of Arizona Who Was Previously the Subject of a Terror investigation

ONE OF THE GUNMAN HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AND HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY BEEN INVESTIGATED FOR TERROR …

According to KTRK, ABC13, is reporting that one of the suspected gunmen has been identified, who was killed last night by Garland, Texas police outside of the ‘Muhammad Art & Cartoon Contest’ as Elton Simpson. According to the FBI, Simpson was a previous subject of a terror investigation. Hmm, how did he seem to slip through the cracks if they knew who he was? How does an individual who has ties to terror allowed to walk among us? At least he will not be able to partake in another terror attack, ever. Also, the second shooter was his roommate, both of who were from Arizona. Both gunman were shot dead by Garland police last night outside of the Curtis Culwell Center.

ABC News can confirm that one of the suspects is Elton Simpson, an Arizona man who was previously the subject of a terror investigation. He’s from phoenix and television stations in Phoenix are reporting the second shooter was Simpson’s roommate. We’re still waiting on his name.

The FBI believes Simpson sent out a tweet using the hashtag #texasattack about a half hour before shooting.

From ABC News, Simpson was well known to the FBI. Five years ago he was convicted for lying to federal agents about his plans to travel to Africa, but a judge ruled the government did not adequately prove he was going to join a terror group there. Thanks judge.

Below is the Tweet that was sent out prior to the attack in Garland Texas. Twitter has suspends account that warned about a ‘Texas attack’ 15 minutes before incident at anti-Muslim event.

Twitter appears to have suspended an account that tweeted about an attack in Texas 15 minutes before shots were fired at an anti-Muslim event in the city of Garland.

Under the profile name “Shariah is Light”, the tweet read (See Update II): “The bro with me and myself have given bay’ah to Amirul Mu’mineen. May Allah accept us as mujahideen [jihadists]. Make dua. #texasattack.”

The tweet was posted at 6.35pm local time in Texas – 15 minutes before Garland Police Department received its first reports of gunfire at the anti-Muslim event. In a tweet sent three hours before its last, the profile recommended people follow another account – @AbuHu55ain – which has also now been suspended.

UPDATE I: FBI searching Phoenix home of suspected Garland gunmen.

According to ABC News, FBI agents are now searching an apartment in Phoenix where they say the suspects lived as roommates.

One of them has been identified as Elton Simpson, 30. He was convicted in a terror investigation five years ago, but was given probation. Simpson is believed to be the man who tweeted several ominous messages before the incident using the hashtag #texasattack.

5 Fast Facts You Need to Know about Elton Simpson:

1. He Is Believed to Have Posted on Twitter Shortly Before the Shooting
2. He Was Sentenced to Probation in 2010 After He Was the Target of a FBI Terror Investigation
3. The FBI Has Been Searching His Phoenix, Arizona Home
4. The Shooting Targeted a Controversial ‘Draw Muhammad’ Contest
5. ISIS Supporters Had Been Calling For an Attack on the Garland Event

Shooting at Muhammad Cartoon Contest at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX at Pamela Geller Texas Free Speech Event (Update: Two Gunman Dead)

A SHOOTING HAS TAKEN PLACE OUTSIDE THE TEXAS FREE SPEECH EVENT IN GARLAND, TX HELD BY PAMELA GELLER …

According to FOX News, two individuals were shot outside of the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX where the Texas Free Speech Event was taking place. The center was put on lock-down following the shooting. The ‘free speech” event (VIDEO) was a ‘Muhammad Art and Cartoon Contest’. This was the same location that hosted a pro-Islam contest last month. Of course there were no gunman trying to kill people at that conference who disagreed with that one.

The First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest will be hosted by the Curtis Caldwell Center.

Pamela Geller.com

Two individuals were shot dead by police outside of the event as it was reported, “two males drove up to the front of the building in a car,” as the event was coming to an end. “Both males were armed and began shooting at a Garland … security officer. Garland Police officers engaged the gunmen, who were both shot and killed.” It is probably not that much of a stretch that the two gunman that were killed were Islamists looking to quell free speech.

Shooting at Muhammad Cartoon Contest Garland, Texas: 2 Gunmen Killed, Officer Down

Pamela Geller – Twitter

A Prophet Muhammad art exhibit and contest in Dallas is on lockdown Sunday after a reported shooting outside the building that left two suspects reportedly dead and one officer injured.

According to the Dallas Morning News, two men  pulled up in a vehicle and  then shot an officer outside the Curtis Culwell center Sunday evening. They were then fatally shot by police officers.

The officer’s injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, the paper reported.

An officer dressed in SWAT gear took the stage toward the end of the event at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland and told attendees, including an Associated Press reporter, that a shooting had occurred.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the shooting was related to the event.

Garland Police Department spokesman Joe Harn declined to confirm the SWAT officer’s statements and said he had no details.

VIDEO via The Gateway Pundit

UPDATE I: Bomb Squad is on the scene with mechanical robot investigating a suspicious vehicle.

8:11pm CT: Suspects’ vehicle being checked for explosives. It is scheduled to be detonated.

8:20pm CT: Authorities tell CBS 11 that SWAT will escort 48 people at a time out of arena soon, but many are parked in a now secured area and cannot access cars.

UPDATE II: From The Gateway Pundit … “Shariah is Light” posted this at at 6:35 CENTRAL TIME and took credit for the attack.

UPDATE III: According to VIDEO below from Newsy, the identities of the shooters have not yet been released and it has not yet been determined whether the attack was was religiously motivated. I think it is safe to say that it was.

Gunmen Shot Outside ‘Draw Muhammad’ Event in Garland, Texas

UPDATE IV: The security officer, Bruce Joiner,  was released from the hospital after his wounds were treated.

The two men pulled up in a vehicle and shot a Garland ISD security officer. The men were fatally shot by Garland police, and their bodies remain on the street outside the events center.

The security officer, Bruce Joiner,  was released from the hospital after his wounds were treated.

No one was being allowed to leave the facility, where an art show centering on caricatures of Muhammad was being held. Nearby businesses, including a Walmart and Sam’s Club, were evacuated.

UPDATE V: Follow more updates from Breitbart.com.

UPDATE, 11:09 PM: ISIS has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Rowlett/Sachse Scanner:

UPDATE ON THE POLICE INCIDENT:

Officers are advising the scene is NOT safe. It is believed that explosive(s) have been placed near the Curtis Culwell Center. FBI Bomb Squad, Garland Police, Garland SWAT, Rowlett Police, Rowlett SWAT, and Texas State Troopers are on scene.

There is a huge perimeter set. No one gets in and no one gets out.

ISIS is taking responsibility for this attack.

UPDATE, 10:59 PM: Attendees were just informed by police that the FBI would be coming to interview them all, prior to law enforcement letting them go.

UPDATE VI: Tonight at Police Press Conference … Garland Police said they are using robot to check suspects car for bombs. Also, they gave not moved the two dead bodies because of their proximity to the vehicle and they may have explosives on their bodies. The police were not going to put officers or medical examiners in harms way until all has been cleared.

The bodies of suspects lay dead next to vehicle as police continue to check for explosives.

Pic – Hat Tip Jim Hofts, Twitter

18 Al-Qaeda Islamic Extremists Arrested in Italy for 2010 Vatican Terror Plot

ARRESTS MADE IN ITALY FOR 2010 SUICIDE BOMB PLOT AGAINST THE VATICAN AND POPE BENEDICT XVI …

As reported at Reuters, Italian security forces have arrested 18 radical Islamic extremists Friday who prosecutors said were behind a failed 2010 plot to attack the Vatican as well as a bombing at a Pakistan market that killed more than 100 a year earlier. Prosecutor Mauro Mura stated in Cagliari, Sardinia that wiretaps indicated the suspected terrorists, including two former bodyguards for Usama bin Laden, planned a bomb attack at the Vatican and went as far as to send a suicide bomber to Rome.

Italian police were arresting 18 people on Friday suspected of belonging to an armed group linked to al Qaeda who were plotting attacks on the Vatican as well as in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Some of the suspects, who are all Pakistanis and Afghans, were arrested in early morning raids across Italy. Police burst into the home of the group’s suspected spiritual leader, in the northern city of Bergamo, a video released by them showed.

Though the suspects were plotting attacks mainly in their native countries, phone taps suggest the Vatican was also a target, said Mauro Mura, chief prosecutor of the Sardinian city of Cagliari, where the group based its headquarters.

In the tapped conversations, the suspects discuss “a big jihad in Italy,” added Mario Carta, head of the police unit on the case. They reference the word “baba”, which could mean the pope, Carta said.

“We don’t have proof, we have strong suspicion,” that the Holy See was a possible target, he added.

Italy: Al-Qaeda cell planned suicide attack on Vatican:

Raids were carried out simultaneously in seven different Italian provinces with arrest warrants for 18 suspected Islamic extremists following a lengthy investigation in Cagliari, capital of the Italian island Sardinia.

Authorities uncovered plans for a suicide bomber plot against the Vatican in 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI was pontiff. Evidence includes a “martyr’s vow” from a would-be suicide bomber threatening to strike against the Vatican, the spiritual focal point for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

Mario Carta, an official from the counter-terror police force that carried out the raids, called it “one of the most important operations ever carried out in Italy.” Police said the operation targeted an “extremely well-structured terror network” based in Sardinia since at least 2005 that was made up of Pakistani and Afghan nationals.

Nine people have been arrested, and two are still at large in Italy. Seven of the suspects are believed to be in Pakistan, Carta said.

ISIS Takes Credit for Suicide Bombing That Killed at Least 33 People in Afghanistan

Barack Obama’s JV terrorist killers take credit for slaughter of 33 people in Afghanistan … 

Hours after the suicide bombing attack Jalalabad, Afghanistan that saw 33 people killed and more than 100 injured, ISIS took credit for the slaughter. The attack in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nagarhar province, targeted a crowd of soldiers and civilians gathered outside the bank to receive their monthly salaries. Even the Taliban condemned the attack and killing of innocents who were just simply waiting in line outside a bank. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated,“It was an evil act. We strongly condemn it.” You know you are a bunch of savage murdering animals when other terrorist groups condemn your killing. But of course, this is the same radical Islamist terrorists that Barack Obama called the JV and says are not Islamic.

A motorcycle-riding suicide bomber attacked a bank branch Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 33 people in a deadly attack the country’s president said was claimed by the Islamic State group.

The attack marks a major escalation in the country’s fight against an affiliate of the extremist group that now holds a third of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate.

It also comes as Afghan security forces fight against the Taliban after U.S. and NATO forces ended their combat mission in the country at the start of the year, yet another challenge for the war-ravaged nation.

The attack in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nagarhar province, targeted a crowd of soldiers and civilians gathered outside the bank to receive their monthly salaries. The blast killed at least 33 people and wounded more than 100, said Dr. Hamayon Zaheer, the head of Jalalabad’s hospital.

Hours after the attack, President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Islamic State group for the attack.

“In the horrific incident in Nangarhar, who took responsibility? The Taliban didn’t claim responsibility. Daesh claimed responsibility for it,” Ghani said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Ghani warned before that the Islamic State group was starting to establish a presence in Afghanistan. He used his visit to the United States last month to reiterate his concerns that the extremist group was making inroads into Afghanistan.

Two New York City Women (Noelle Velentzas & Asia Siddiqui) Arrested in Connection with Home Grown Terrorist Bomb Plot

BECAUSE ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE …

Two New York City women, 28 year old Noelle Velentzas and 31 year old Asia Siddiqui, were arrested at their Queens homes early Thursday during a police and FBI sting operation. It is reported that the two women were influenced by ISIS and the Boston Marathon bombing.  According to the complaint, the women “researched and acquired some of the components of a car bomb, like the one used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; a fertilizer bomb, like the one used in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City; and a pressure cooker bomb, like the one used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.” The two female terrorists were reportedly going to attack police amnd military funerals.

The Washington Times:

The disturbing allegations were contained in court papers describing the latest homegrown terror plot thwarted by the FBI and the New York Police Department.

Noelle Velentzas and Asia Siddiqui were arrested at their Queens homes early Thursday following a sting operation using an undercover officer wearing a wire. Officer searching the homes recovered items including three gas tanks, a pressure cooker, fertilizer, handwritten notes on the recipes for bomb making and jihadist literature, court papers say.

Velentzas, had been “obsessed with pressure cookers since the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013” and made jokes alluding to explosives after receiving one as a gift, according to a criminal complaint citing one of the secret recordings made by the undercover who managed to befriend the pair.

The arrests show U.S. authorities “are committed to doing everything in our ability to detect, disrupt, and deter attacks by homegrown violent extremists,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement. “As alleged, the defendants in this case carefully studied how to construct an explosive device to launch an attack on the homeland.”