GARLAND, Texas (AP) — Garland’s police chief says the information the FBI sent local law enforcement on one of two gunmen outside a controversial cartoon contest would not have changed his department’s response to the event.
Police Chief Mitch Bates told reporters Monday that the FBI bulletin sent on Elton Simpson in the hours before the shooting did not indicate he was an imminent threat to attack the event. That confirms last week’s statement from FBI Director James Comey, who said federal investigators believed Simpson might show up, but didn’t know for certain.
Simpson and the other gunman, Nadir Soofi, were shot and killed by officers outside the contest of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
One school security guard was wounded.
Bates hailed the five officers who responded to Simpson and Soofi as “heroes.”
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