Police in Garland, Texas say the two men who were fatally shot outside a controversial event there on Sunday would have killed visitors had they not been stopped.
“They were there to shoot people,” Officer Joe Harn with
the Garland Police Department told reporters at a press
conference on Monday barely 24 hours after 10 men were killed
outside a “Mohammad Art Exhibit and Contest.”
Harn said authorities were approached by the organizers of the
event months earlier and recommended the planners purchase
$10,000 worth of security services for the supposed art expo.
READ MORE: 2 gunmen killed outside Mohammed ‘art event’ in Texas
Uniformed police officers, SWAT personnel and federal agents were
at the event on Sunday, Harn said, and responded to reports of
shots being fired within seconds.
According to Harn, a dark colored vehicle pulled up to the west
parking lot of the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland just before 7
pm local time on Sunday. A police cruiser was stationed at the
entrance and blocking access to the lot, Harn said. The officers
exited and attempted to approach the sedan when its two occupants
left the vehicle and began shooting.
Garland PIO Joe Harn gives #garlandshooting update @FOX4 "They were there to shoot people" pic.twitter.com/nxsnoI79g1
— Oscar (@kdfw06) May 4, 2015
“From what it appears, they simply got out and started
firing,” Harn said on Monday.
A traffic cop shot at both men with his pistol, Harn said,
killing them.
“Both of those men died there on the street next to their
car,” Harn said.
Harn said that the Curtis Caldwell Center, which is owned and
operated by the Garland Independent School District, remains an
active crime scene as officials continue their investigation.
Sunday’s event was organized by the American Freedom Defense
Initiative, an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center
describes as being composed of anti-Muslim extremists.
Garland Officer Joe Harn: Event paid $10,000 for extra security at art show last night. #garlandshootingpic.twitter.com/g7J6PZtbzj
— WFAA TV (@wfaachannel8) May 4, 2015
Depictions of Mohammed, the Islamic prophet, are prohibited by
the religion. But Pamela Geller, the president of the AFDI, said
recently “enough is enough.”
“They’re just cartoons. We’re holding this exhibit and cartoon
contest to show how insane the world has become — with people in
the free world tiptoeing in terror around supremacist thugs, who
actually commit murder over cartoons. If we can’t stand up for
the freedom of speech, we will lose it — and with it, free
society,” she told Breitbart.
“Of course, this event will require massive security,”
Geller told Breitbart in February. “But this exhibit has to
be staged. If we don’t show the jihadis that they will not
frighten us into silence, the jihad against freedom will only
grow more virulent.”
Harn declined to identify the suspected gunmen or the authorities involved during Monday’s press conference, but ABC News previously said one of the shooters was Elton Simpson of Arizona, citing an unnamed official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was reported earlier in the day that the FBI had been searching Simpson’s home in Phoenix shortly after the Sunday evening incident.