Texas cartoon shooter attended Phoenix-area high school
May 5, 2015, 5:03 PM | Updated: 5:04 pm
PHOENIX — An Arizona man suspected of opening fire at a Texas cartoon contest graduated from a Phoenix-area high school, district authorities said Tuesday.
Officials at the Glendale Unified School District confirmed Elton Simpson graduated from Washington High School in 2002.
Simpson was identified as one of the men killed Sunday by suburban Dallas police after the men opened fire at an event hosting a contest for Prophet Muhammad cartoons.
Court documents showed Simpson was investigated and charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after taking a trip to Somalia. He was convicted of making a false statement to the agency in 2010.
Trial records showed Simpson was the focus of a criminal investigation in 2006 because of his association “with an individual whom the FBI believed was attempting to set up a terrorist cell in Arizona,” U.S. District Judge Mary H. Murgia said in her order convicting Simpson.
Another man, Nadir Soofi, was killed by police after allegedly opening fire alongside Simpson.
KTAR’s Jim Cross and Cooper Rummell and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
