Chilling Recorded Conversations of American Muslim Who Opened Fire on Anti-Islam Event in Texas [+video]
Photo Credit: Daily Mail
Elton Simpson, 30, and his roommate Nadir Soofi, 24, were killed outside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland after a security guard was shot during a controversial competition for the best caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
Court documents have now revealed that Simpson, who was born in Illinois before moving to Phoenix, Arizona and converting to Islam, was well known to the FBI.
In 2010, he was convicted of lying to federal agents about his plans to travel to Somalia, where they suspected he planned to join a terror group.
‘The defendant falsely stated to special agents of the FBI that he had not discussed traveling to Somalia, when in fact he had discussed with others traveling to Somalia for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,’ a complaint reads. (Read more from “Chilling Recorded Conversations of American Muslim Who Opened Fire on Anti-Islam Event in Texas” HERE)
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How Texas “Terror” Shooter Elton Simpson Avoided Prison in 2011
By James King. The attorney who once defended one of two men who opened fire at a “Draw Muhammad” event in Texas on Sunday says she was “shocked” to learn that he was involved in the attack. She says she has represented a number of people charged with terrorism-related crimes. Some of them are the “worst of the worst,” but Elton Simpson was “one of the good ones,” she said.
“He was always respectful to me and my staff—did everything he was supposed to do,” attorney Kristina Sitton told Vocativ.
According to Sitton, Simpson didn’t come from a Muslim family and didn’t convert to Islam until he was in high school. “He said he was running with a bad crowd in high school—smoking, drinking and stuff,” she said. “He said Islam got him away from that stuff.”
Sitton defended Simpson against charges that he made false statements to an FBI agent in 2010 about a trip he was planning to take to Somalia to study Islam. He was facing up to eight years in prison if federal prosecutors had been able to convince Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Mary Murguia that the trip was related to international or domestic terrorism. Ultimately, Murguia in 2011 sentenced him to three years probation for the false statement. According to federal court records obtained by Vocativ, the judge determined that the feds didn’t make their case—despite audio recordings of Simpson talking about “jihad” with an FBI informant. (Read more from this story HERE)
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