2015 Garland, Texas Shooting

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Overview

2015 Garland, Texas Shooting was a terrorist attack that occurred during an art exhibit for illustrations of the Muslim prophet Mohammad at the Curtis Cullwell Center in Garland, Texas in early May 2015.

Background

On May 3rd, 2015, the American Freedom Defense Initiative organization held an art exhibit and contest in Garland, Texas for drawings of Mohammad in response to the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in January that year. At the end of the event, Arizona residents Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi shot a security guard outside of the building. The men were subsequently shot to death by police.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

Following the shooting, people began commenting on the attack with the hashtag #garlandshooting^[1] on Twitter. Meanwhile, Redditor Ripclawe submitted a news story about the incident to /r/news,^[4] where it received more than 5,400 votes (93% upvoted) and 9,200 comments within 24 hours. On May 4th, Twitter user @RefugeeRacket^[3] tweeted the winning illustration for the event, featuring a depiction of Mohammad attacking the artist drawing him (shown below). The same day, Redditor Igortheinvincible posted the illustration to the /r/atheism^[2] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 4,000 votes (90% upvoted) and 800 comments in the first seven hours.

Possible ISIS Affiliation

On May 4th, The Guardian^[5] posted a screenshot of a tweet by the Shariah is Light Twitter account (now suspended) with the hashtag #texasattack, posted 15 minutes prior to the attack (shown below). According to the article, the account had previously tweeted support for ISIS and other Islamic extremists.