Claims responsibility
ISIS claims its first attack on US in an audio statement on the extremist group’s Al Bayan radio station. The message says “two soldiers of the caliphate” carried out the attack and promised the group would deliver more attacks in the future. No further details are provided and it is not known whether the group is opportunistically claiming the attack as its own. Following the claim ISIS-related groups celebrate online, with postings on IS-affiliated militant websites, including Twitter:
Following the IS claim of responsibility, IS members and followers celebrated online
How are you (Americans) going to live when we create our lone wolves to be nuclear bombs … by God, you can’t match us and in the heart of your homes you will see.
Let anyone who wants to draw the picture of our Prophet to think one thousand times before doing so, because our hands can reach his neck
Police search apartment
Police search Soofi and Simpson’s apartment in Pheonix. Investigators do not say what has been found in the apartment.
Shooting
Soofi and Simpson are killed by police after shooting at a security guard outside an artistic exhibit of the Islamic prophet Muhammed in Dallas Sunday evening. The event was organized by Geller and also features Wilders as a speaker. A traffic officer working after-hours as security for the event and armed only with a service pistol kills both men, who were wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles. An unarmed security officer working with the patrol officer is shot in the ankle. None of the approximately 200 people attending the event is hurt. Witness:
There was no panic. We knew something had happened, but we didn’t hear anything and didn’t see anything. Security guards quickly escorted the event’s organizer, Pam Geller, from the stage. We were concerned about the [wounded security guard’s] safety and his well-being and just wanted to understand the process of what was going to happen.
Final Tweet
Simpson takes responsibility for the shooting on Twitter, around 20 minutes before the shooting starts.
The bro with me and myself have given bay’ah to Amirul Mu’mineen. May Allah accept us as mujahideen. Make dua #texasattacks
Bay’ah means to give an oath of allegiance, to Amir al-Mu’minin or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. “Make dua” means to call out in prayer. He also tells his users to follow @_AbuHu55ain, who posts about the shooting before the account was suspended.
Three years probation on terror-related charge
Simpson is sentenced to three years of probation. The FBI had claimed that Simpson was traveling to Somalia to engage in “violent jihad.” with the al-Shabaab terror group. After electing to trial by judge rather than jury, Judge Mary H. Murguia finds there isn’t enough evidence to support the FBI’s claim that the travel was related to terrorism. However he is convicted on the lesser charge of making a false statement.