The Curtis Culwell Center attack was a failed terrorist attack on an exhibit featuring cartoon images of Muhammad at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, United States, on May 3, 2015, which ended in a shootout with police guarding the event, and the deaths of the two perpetrators. The attackers shot an unarmed Garland Independent School District (GISD) security officer in the ankle. Shortly after opening fire, both attackers were shot by an off-duty Garland police officer and killed by SWAT.
The FBI had been monitoring the two attackers for years, and an undercover agent was right behind them when the first shots were fired. The injured security guard filed a lawsuit against the FBI in October 2017, claiming the FBI was partially responsible for his injuries.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack plot, the first time the militant group took credit for an attack in the United States. ISIL's claim of responsibility was not verified, and U.S. officials stated that the attack appears to have been inspired, but not directed, by ISIL.
An online ISIL persona run by internet troll Joshua Ryne Goldberg had posted maps to the exhibition, and urged his followers to attack the event. Goldberg pleaded guilty to federal charges in December 2017. His persona was retweeted by one of the attackers on the morning of the attack, and Goldberg claimed responsibility for inciting the attack to multiple news outlets and in his plea agreement.
Background
Muhammad exhibit and contest
The event, which featured images of Muhammad, was advertised as the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest", presented by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), or Stop Islamization of America. It was organized by the AFDI together with the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Jihad Watch, run by Robert Spencer. A $10,000 award was offered for the winning cartoon, which was selected from among 350 submissions. The prize was awarded to Bosch Fawstin, a former Muslim and a critic of Islam who submitted six drawings, with the text "You can't draw me!"/"That's why I draw you." He was to collect an award of $12,500. Though images of Muhammad are not explicitly banned by the Quran, prominent Islamic views oppose human images, especially those of prophets. Such views have gained ground among certain militant Islamic groups.
The event featured speeches by Pamela Geller, president of the AFDI, and Dutch politician Geert Wilders, party leader of the Party for Freedom and outspoken critic of Islam. Congressmen Keith Ellison and André Carson had tried unsuccessfully to block Wilders from entering the United States. At the time of the attack, the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" exhibit was attended by approximately 150 people, although the number was initially estimated at 200.
The organizers of the event had paid over $10,000 to a total of forty off-duty police officers and private security guards. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a SWAT team, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) were also brought in for the occasion of any possible incidents. At the time, there was reportedly "no immediate credible threat" of an attack.
Prior to the attack, ISIL had urged followers and sympathizers who were unable to join the fighting in the Syrian civil war to carry out jihad in their home countries. Approximately three hours prior to the start of the contest, the FBI had alerted the Garland Police Department that a suspected extremist, identified as gunman Elton Simpson, was "interested in the event" and could show up there. However, FBI officials later clarified they had no reason to believe an actual attack would occur at the contest. Officers later stated that they were not aware of the alert.
Location
The "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" event was hosted at the Curtis Culwell Center, rented from the Garland Independent School District. The center previously hosted a fundraiser in January called "Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect", which was organized to combat negative stereotypes of Islam. Geller had spearheaded about 1,000 picketers at that event.
Before the start of the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest", concerns were expressed by Garland citizens about the center hosting the event due to potential backlash and retaliation, a sentiment that had also been voiced prior to the "Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect" event. However, officials allowed both events to proceed as planned, since the school district was bound by a nondiscriminatory leasing policy. Garland ISD board president Rick Lambert said in January, "The Culwell Center is available for rental as long as you comply with the law. Because it is a public facility, the district is not allowed to discriminate based upon viewpoint."
Attack
Minutes prior to the attack, a man, identified by police as one of the gunmen, posted a tweet with the hashtag #texasattack: "May Allah accept us as mujahideen." In his tweet, he said he and an accomplice had pledged allegiance to "Amirul Mu'mineen", which Paul Cruickshank of CNN said probably referred to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The user also asked his readers to follow Junaid Hussain on Twitter. After the shooting occurred, Hussain tweeted: "Allahu Akbar!!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire".
Just before the event was set to end at around 7:00 p.m., two men wearing body armor and equipped with three rifles, three handguns, and 1,500 rounds of ammunition drove up to a police car that was parked next to a barricade erected in front of the center. Seated inside the police car were Officer Gregory Stevens of the Garland Police Department and an unarmed Garland ISD security guard. The two gunmen got out of their vehicle and fired dozens of rounds at the police car, shooting the Garland ISD security guard. The men were then shot and wounded by Stevens, and eventually killed by SWAT officers. The Garland ISD officer, identified as 58-year-old Bruce Joiner, was shot in the ankle. He was treated at a local hospital and confirmed to be released at 9:00 p.m.
Authorities were worried that the suspects' car could contain an incendiary device; as a precaution, several nearby businesses were evacuated. Bomb units from the Garland Police Department, the FBI, the Plano Police Department, and the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport were called to the scene. Police cordoned off a large area and at least three helicopters circled overhead. An officer in SWAT gear took the stage toward the end of the event and told attendees that a shooting had occurred, stating that one officer and two suspects had been shot. It was later confirmed that there were no explosives inside the vehicle. After the attack, Phoenix police began searching the two assailants' apartment.
Perpetrators
Elton Simpson (c. 1985 – May 3, 2015) and Nadir Hamid Soofi (c. 1981 – May 3, 2015), roommates living in an apartment in Phoenix, Arizona, were the assailants in the attack. Simpson was convicted of making a false statement about terrorism in 2011, and followed hacker and pro-ISIL propagandist Junaid Hussain on Twitter. Simpson was an employee at a dentist's office, while Soofi was running a carpet cleaning business. A third man, Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem (born c. 1972), was responsible for housing Simpson and Soofi at his home, as well as supplying them with the firearms and ammunition used in the attack. According to an indictment, around June 2014, the three began conspiring to support ISIL and considered targeting a number of locations for terrorist attacks.
Elton Simpson
Simpson was born in Illinois and raised in suburban Westmont. He moved to Phoenix at a young age. He converted to Islam while attending Washington High School. His lawyer described him as "particularly devout" and "entrenched in Islam", but said he did not seem to be a threat to anyone. Simpson was a longtime worshiper at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, starting in approximately 2005, but according to the mosque's president, Usama Shami, he stopped showing up months prior to the attack. The mosque has been part of previous terrorism probes. He attended Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona, playing basketball for the college there.
Simpson was the subject of an FBI investigation starting in 2006, during which he stated his intent to travel to Somalia and join fellow jihadists. He had ties to Hassan Abujihaad, a former United States Navy sailor arrested in Phoenix and convicted of terrorism-related charges. Abujihaad had been an occasional attendant of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix.
In May 2009, Simpson told an FBI informant, "I'm telling you, man, we can make it to the battlefield. It's time to roll." He was also recorded saying, "If you get shot, or you get killed, it's [heaven] straightaway. ... That's what we here for ... so why not take that route?" In 2010, one day before Simpson was scheduled to travel to Somalia, he was arrested by federal agents as the result of a four-year investigation. The Islamic Community Center of Phoenix posted cash bond of $100,000 to have him released from custody. Simpson was found guilty of making a false statement regarding international and domestic terrorism, and was sentenced to three years probation and a $600 fine in August 2011 after lying to a federal agent about his travel plans. His lenient sentence was the result of U.S. District Court Judge Mary H. Murguia not finding sufficient evidence to conclude that he planned to join a terrorist organization. He was put on the U.S. federal No Fly List. He had previously intended to travel with others to Syria to fight with ISIL, though his accomplices were arrested during simultaneous FBI raids in San Diego and Minneapolis. Authorities had already opened an investigation of Simpson at the time of the attack.
He also interacted with Junaid Hussain, a British-born hacker and member of ISIL, and Mujahid Miski, an Al-Shabaab recruiter and propagandist of Muslim extremism from Minnesota, via Twitter through "secure communication". Hussain was also the founder of a pro-ISIL hacker group called "CyberCaliphate", which was responsible for a cyber-attack on the United States Central Command's Twitter account in January 2015. A week prior to the attack, Simpson mentioned the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" event in a tweet sent to what is believed to be Hassan's Twitter account. Simpson then asked, "When will they ever learn?", and Hassan responded: "The brothers from the Charlie Hebdo attack did their part. It's time for brothers in the #US to do their part." Investigators believe Hussain and Hassan encouraged Simpson to commit an attack on U.S. soil, but also that Simpson assembled the attack plan and targeted the art exhibit on his own accord.
Simpson was identified as the same user who posted a tweet with the hashtag #texasattack: "May Allah accept us as mujahideen." The profile photo on #texasattack was of the late American Salafi imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who had repeatedly called for violence against cartoonists who insulted the Islamic prophet Muhammad prior to being killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011 in Yemen. Junaid Hussain was identified as the ISIL propagandist whom Simpson recommended his readers to follow in that same tweet.
Nadir Soofi
Soofi's father, Azam Soofi, is Pakistani, and his mother, Sharon Soofi, is American. According to his mother, he was born at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas and lived in Garland until age three. The family then moved to Plano, Texas, and then Alabama. His mother, who was raised Catholic, converted to Islam at the request of his father. Soofi was also raised as a Muslim by his father. He and his brother moved to Pakistan with their father and stepmother after their parents were divorced in the 1990s. During his time there, Soofi attended the International School of Islamabad, where he was said by friends to have been popular among his classmates.
In 1998, after living in Pakistan for six years, Soofi moved back to the U.S. to live with his mother in Utah. The two later moved to Phoenix in the mid-2000s. According to his friends in Pakistan, he had difficulties adjusting to the American culture upon moving to the U.S. He took a pre-medical course at the University of Utah starting in the fall semester of 1998, but dropped out in the summer of 2003. At one point, he also owned Cleopatra Bistro Pizza, a pizza and hot wings eatery that served halal food, though the business struggled and eventually closed down five months prior to the attack.
Soofi was arrested and charged for more than twenty minor offenses, most of them traffic violations. In June 2001, when he was twenty, he pleaded guilty to possession of alcohol by a minor. In March 2002, he pleaded guilty to alcohol-related reckless driving, followed by another guilty plea in June 2002 for driving on a suspended license. In 2003, he was charged for distributing a controlled substance and possessing drug paraphernalia, although the case was later dismissed. That same year in July, Soofi pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. The case was also dismissed.