Nadir Hamid Soofi PHOTO: FACEBOOK
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 Muhammad (pbuh), attended high school in Islamabad, the New York Times reported.
A Facebook page that appears to be of the identified attacker Nadir Hamid Soofi says he graduated from the International School of Islamabad, in Pakistan, in 1998. However, a first cousin of his said he was born in the United States. The page also says he attended the University of Utah.
“We’re all devastated,” the cousin, who did not want to be identified, said of Soofi’s relatives. “We just barely found out just now on CNN.”
Soofi, 34, along with Elton Simpson, 30, had opened fire at the event before a police officer managed to take them down.
Simpson was known to the FBI, and had been convicted of lying to federal officers in 2011. He denied charges of planning to go travel to Somalia for jihad. He had subsequently been sentenced to three years of probation since the prosecution had failed to back their claim with conclusive evidence.
The two men had driven up to the place of the event at around 6:50pm, Sunday, which was attended by far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders. The men managed to fire multiple bullets from assault rifles before a police officer took them down. A security guard was wounded in the attack.
Islamic Community Centre of Pheonix president Usama Shami said that Soofi owned a pizza shop. Shami said that Soofi used to visit the mosque along with Simpson since it was located just two miles from where they lived.
The motive of the event is still unclear, however the nature of the event, is considered to be the most rational reason. Drawing pictures of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is considered blasphemous in many Islamic schools of thoughts. It was one of the reasons cited for the attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo which left 12 people dead. Wilders too has been listed as a target by Islamic extremists.
Officer Harn, one of the police officers on duty at the event, said that, “Two men exited the dark colour sedan, both of them had assault rifles and came around the back of the car and started shooting at the police car.”
The SITE private intelligence group said that at the time of the attack, a tweet with the hashtag ‘#texasattack’ was posted on a twitter account with the name “Shariah is Light”. The profile picture of the account was of Anwar al Awlaki, a Yemeni-American militant leader who was killed in a 2011 CIA drone strike in Yemen - the first known drone attack on a US citizen.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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