Excerpt:
A former terror suspect previously known to the FBI was one of the two men killed in the shootout at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX during the Mohammed Art Exhibit and Contest organized by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI).
Elton Simpson of Arizona was an American Muslim convicted five years ago of lying to federal agents about his plans to travel to Africa. Despite that conviction, U.S. District Judge Mary Murguia wrote that there was "insufficient evidence to support that the false statement 'involved' international terrorism." Simpson got three years probation.
Police believe Simpson was the same man who sent out a series of tweets from a now suspended "Shariah is Light" Twitter account. That account also contained the image of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Islamist imam killed in Yemen in 2011 by an American drone strike. A screen grab from that account makes it clear Elton embraced radical Islam. "The bro with me and myself have given bay'ah to Amirul Mu'mineen. May Allah accept us as mujahideen," it stated, above the hashtag #texasattack.