Killings outside anti-Muslim event in Texas | World News |Axisoflogic.com

Texas police shot dead two gunmen who opened fire on Sunday outside an exhibit of caricatures of Muhammad that was organized by an anti-Islamic group and billed as a free-speech event.

Sunday's attack took place shortly before 7 p.m. in a parking lot of the Curtis Culwell Center, an indoor arena in the suburb of Garland, northeast of Dallas. A bomb squard was called to the scene to investigate the vehicle belonging to the dead gunmen.

Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician known for his anti-Islamic views, was among the speakers at the event, organized by Pamela Geller, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). The group, which is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, has sponsored anti-Islamic advertising campaigns in transit systems across the country.

Organizers of the "Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" said the event was to promote freedom of expression. They offered a $10,000 prize for the best artwork or cartoon depicting the Prophet, as well as a $2,500 "People's Choice Award."

Depictions of Muhammad are viewed as offensive in Islam, and Western art that portrays him has sometimes angered Muslims and provoked threats. Charlie Hebdo, the French magazine attacked in January, had printed cartoons depictions of the religious figure.

Garland police said they had not immediately determined the identity of the two gunmen or whether they were linked to critics of the event who branded it anti-Islamic.

"Because of the situation of what was going on today and the history of what we've been told has happened at other events like this, we are considering their car (is) possibly containing a bomb," Officer Joe Harn, a spokesman for the Garland Police Department, said at a news conference.

"I have no idea who they area, other than they’re dead and in the street," Harn said earlier in the evening about the two slain gunmen.

Harn said it was not immediately clear whether the shooting was connected to the event inside. Police aren't aware of any ongoing threat and had not received any credible threats before the event, he said.

The area was evacuated after the shooting, as were some surrounding businesses. The evacuation was lifted several hours later but a large area around the center remained blocked off late into the night.

Police helicopters circled overhead as bomb squads worked on the car.

In Sunday's incident, the two suspects drove up to the building in a car as the event was coming to an end, and opened fire with automatic rifles at an unarmed security officer, striking him in the leg, police and city officials said.

Garland police officers who were on the scene assisting with security returned fire, killing both suspects, Harn said. He told reporters the shooting incident lasted seconds. The wounded security officer, who was unarmed, worked for the Garland Independent School District, and was treated and released from a local hospital, Harn said.

Most of the 200 or so people attending the event were still inside the arena when the violence unfolded and were unaware of what had happened until police came into the building and advised everyone to remain indoors because of a shooting.

After the shooting, authorities escorted about 75 contest attendees to another room in the conference center, where a woman held up an American flag, and the crowd sang "God Bless America."

The group was then taken to a separate location, where they were held for about two hours until being briefly questioned by FBI agents before being released.

"The first suspect was shot immediately," Garland Mayor Douglas Athas told CNN. The second suspect was shot and wounded — reached for his backpack. Of course officers not knowing what was in the backpack, shot him again. He was killed."

The mayor said the city permitted the event even though officials knew its inflammatory theme could provoke an attack.

"There was concern, which is why we had heightened security in the area, but we all swear to uphold the Constitution: free speech, free assembly and in this case perhaps, free religion," Athas said. "So in this case they were free to use the building."

Harn said the Garland Independent School District hires security for events at its facilities, but noted additional security also was in place for Sunday's event. The sponsoring group has said it paid $10,000 for off-duty police officers and other private security.

Johnny Roby of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who was attending the conference told the AP he was outside the building when he heard around about 20 shots that appeared to be coming from the direction of a passing car.

Roby said he then heard two single shots. He said he heard officers yell that they had the car before he was sent inside the building.

Geller, president of the AFDI, said that she planned the Sunday event to make a stand for free speech in response to the outcries and violence over drawings of Muhammad.

During the Sunday event, USA Today reported that attendees were planning to hear from "brave artists who are unbowed by violent threats and determined to stand for the freedom of speech."

In January, 12 people were killed by gunmen in an attack against the Paris office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had lampooned Islam and other religions and used depictions of Muhammad.

In February, a masked gunman sprayed bullets into a Copenhagen meeting attended by a Swedish artist who had been threatened with death for his cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. A civilian was killed and three police officers were injured in the attack, aimed at artist Lars Vilks, who stirred controversy in 2007 with published drawings depicting the Prophet Mohammad as a dog.

Denmark became a target 10 years ago after the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad. The images led to sometimes fatal protests in the Muslim world.

Though it remained unclear several hours after the shooting whether it was related to event, Geller said Sunday night that the shooting showed how "needed our event really was."

Wilders received several standing ovations as he quoted former President Ronald Reagan and Texas founding father Sam Houston.

"Today, here in Garland, we fight Muhammad and his followers with the pen. And the pen, the drawings, will prove mightier than the sword," Wilders said during his speech.

The Dallas Morning News reported that critics of the art exhibit had condemned the event as an attack on Islam, but that organizers had said they were merely exercising their right of free expression.

According to the Morning News, Garland hosted dueling protests in January. When a Chicago-based nonprofit held a January fundraiser in Garland designed to help Muslims combat negative depictions of their faith, Geller spearheaded about 1,000 picketers at the event.

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