GARLAND, Texas-Two gunmen, who opened fire on a security guard outside the venue for the contest provocative cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, have been killed, according to authorities in Garland, a suburb of Dallas, Sunday night (3/5).
Garland city government said in a statement posted on his Facebook page Sunday night that the two men drove to the Curtis Culwell Center and began shooting a security guard.
The policemen from the Garland Police Department dealing with both the gunman, who then shot and died, according to the statement.
The statement did not explain whether the shooting was related to the event. The wounds suffered by security officers reportedly did not resulted in the deaths, according to the city government.
Vehicle gunmen it may contain "incendiary devices," according to the statement. Bomb squad is on site, and places of business in the vicinity were evacuated.
Police block a wide area around the town Sunday night contest. Police presence is felt, and at least three helicopters patrolled the air.
American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) based in New York has held a contest in Curtis Culwell Center with a grant of US $ 10,000 for the best cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
According to mainstream Islamic tradition, any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad — even a respectful one — is considered blasphemous. Drawings similar to those featured at the Texas event have sparked violence around the world.
Harn said Sunday that a bomb squad was searching the gunmen’s vehicle for explosives. The vehicle was heavily damaged Monday morning, indicating that authorities detonated the car overnight as a precaution.
A resident of the apartment complex, Douglas Hayes, said he saw police cars flood the complex Sunday night and saw SWAT team members walking throughout the complex. Hayes said early Monday morning he heard a loud noise that turned out to be law enforcement personnel breaking into a parked white minivan. Hayes says all the windows were broken, leaving glass scattered about the vehicle.
The bodies of the men could still be seen on the ground near the car Monday before they were later covered with a tarp. Investigators are still processing the crime scene, Harn said.
The wounded security officer, who was unarmed, worked for the Garland Independent School District which owns the center, Harn said. He was treated and released from a hospital.
Harn said the district hires security for events at its facilities, but noted that additional security was hired for Sunday’s event. The sponsoring group has said it paid $10,000 for off-duty police officers and other private security.
Harn said the city had not received any credible threats before the shooting.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said state officials are investigating, and Dallas FBI spokeswoman Katherine Chaumont said that agency is providing investigative and bomb technician assistance.
The event featured speeches by American Freedom Defense Initiative president Pamela Geller and Geert Wilders, a Dutch lawmaker known for his outspoken criticism of Islam. Wilders received several standing ovations from the crowd and left immediately after his speech.
Wilders, who has advocated closing Dutch doors to migrants from the Islamic world for a decade, has lived under round-the-clock police protection since 2004.
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 where they were questioned by FBI agents then released.
Johnny Roby of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, told the Associated Press he was outside the building when he heard about 20 shots that appeared to come from 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 told the AP before Sunday’s event that she planned the contest to make a stand for free speech in response to outcries and violence over drawings of Muhammad. She said in a statement after the shooting that it showed how “needed our event really was.”
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. Another deadly shooting occurred the following month at a free speech event in Copenhagen featuring an artist who had caricatured the prophet.
Tens of thousands of people rallied around the world to honor the victims and defend the freedom of expression following those shootings.
Geller’s group is known for mounting a campaign against the building of an Islamic center blocks from the World Trade Center site and for buying advertising space in cities across the U.S. criticizing Islam.
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