Police raid home of gunman in cartoon attack in Texas

(MENAFN- Arab News) GARLAND Texas: Police and FBI on Monday searched the Arizona apartment of one of two gunmen shot dead on Sunday after they allegedly opened fire with assault rifles outside a Texas exhibit.
Police in Garland Texas said they had planned security for months around the controversial exhibit and contest and that a bomb squad the Federal Bureau of Investigation a SWAT team and the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives were all in place on Sunday night in case of any incidents.
Police worked with the FBI to determine if the attack was a terrorist incident. No bombs were found in the attackers' car police said.
'Obviously they were there to shoot people' Garland Texas police spokesman Joe Harn said at a news conference. 'He did a good job' referring to the police officer who shot the attackers dead with his duty pistol.
In January gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what it said was revenge for its cartoons. Four others were also killed at a kosher market in the city.
Citing a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official ABC News identified one of the gunmen as Elton Simpson an Arizona man who was the target of a terror investigation. FBI agents and a bomb squad were searching Simpson's Phoenix home ABC said.
Phoenix's KPHO TV reported an unidentified second man lived in the same complex as Simpson the Autumn Ridge Apartments. It was not immediately clear whether the two men lived in the same apartment.
The two-story apartment building was cordoned off and residents were evacuated early on Monday a neighbor told Reuters. Police and FBI vehicles were parked outside but officials declined to comment.
The event featured speakers including Geert Wilders a polarizing Dutch politician and anti-Islamic campaigner who is on an Al Qaeda hit list.
The AFDI described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group has among other activities sponsored anti-Islamic advertising campaigns in transit systems across the country.
The attack on Sunday took place at about 7 p.m. local time in a parking lot of the Curtis Culwell Center an indoor arena in Garland northeast of Dallas.
The two suspects drove up to the building as the event was ending and opened fire with automatic rifles at an unarmed security officer striking him in the leg.
Garland police officers who were assisting with security returned fire killing both suspects.
Most of the 200 people attending the event were still inside the arena when the violence unfolded and unaware of what had happened until later.