Soofi is the roommate of Elton Simpson, who had already been identified by police as one of the two gunmen, media reports said on Monday.
The New York Times and Washington Post quoted officials as saying that Soofi and Simpson opened fire on Sunday night outside an exhibition of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Both were killed by a police officer who was providing security for the event.
Monitored for years
Federal agents for years monitored one of the two gunmen who were shot dead after opening fire with assault rifles at a heavily guarded Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.
Two government sources who asked not to be named said the shooters were roommates Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, of Phoenix. Court documents show that Simpson had been under surveillance since 2006 and was convicted in 2011 of lying to FBI agents over his desire to join violent jihad in Somalia.
FBI agents and police searched the two men’s home at the Autumn Ridge Apartments in north-central Phoenix, cordoning off the complex and evacuating residents for several hours in the early morning.
The shooting incident in the Dallas suburb of Garland was an echo of past attacks or threats in other Western countries against images depicting the Prophet Mohammad. In January, gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what was said to be revenge for its cartoons- Reuters
The Tweet
An ominous tweet came from an account believed to be related to the attacks. The account, which has now been deleted, was named “Shariah is Light.” The last message that came from the account read “May Allah accept us as mujahideen.”
