PHOENIX — The heavily armed gunmen who attacked a cartoon contest near Dallas during the weekend likely were inspired by the Islamic State militants, according to U.S. officials, who cautioned they have so far seen no indication that the assailants were directed by the group.
Law enforcement officials said Tuesday they were analyzing the shooters’ electronic devices, including phones and computers, to determine whether others might have been involved in the plot or somehow encouraged it.
The men — Elton Simpson, 30, a Muslim convert, and his roommate, Nadir Soofi, 34 — are not known to have had formal ties to the Islamic State, officials said, but the group’s propaganda could have fueled their decision to attack the gathering in Garland, Texas.
In online postings, the group’s followers had drawn attention to the cartoon contest. On Tuesday, a Syria-based radio station operated by the Islamic State asserted responsibility for the attack.
While the FBI closely monitors U.S. citizens who have tried to travel overseas to join the Islamic State, officials also have seen a growing number of cases in which supporters of the group or other radical Islamist causes have planned domestic attacks.
Simpson and Soofi had traveled roughly 1,000 miles from Phoenix to Garland in time for the Sunday event dubbed the Muhammad Art Exhibit, which promised a $10,000 prize for the best cartoon depicting the founder of Islam. Both were killed after opening fire on a security guard, wounding him.
Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said a Twitter account linked to Simpson included images of Anwar Awlaki, a radical cleric killed in a CIA drone strike in Yemen.
Simpson had been arrested in 2010 and charged with lying to the FBI about plans to travel overseas to wage violent jihad in Somalia. He was convicted the following year on a lesser charge and sentenced to three years of probation.
Soofi attended the University of Utah as a pre-med student from 1998 to 2003. In Phoenix, he ran a restaurant and later a carpet cleaning business.
