Authorities in Garland, Texas, say two armed men were killed and a security guard injured after the men began shooting outside a “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” held by reactionary anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative. Officials in Garland, a city of over 200,000 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, posted a brief statement about the incident on Facebook:
As today’s Muhammad Art Exhibit event at the Curtis Culwell Center was coming to an end, two males drove up to the front of the building in a car. Both males were armed and began shooting at a Garland ISD security officer. The GISD security officer’s injuries are not life-threatening. Garland Police officers engaged the gunmen, who were both shot and killed.
Police have not yet identified the shooting suspects or said whether they know for certain that the shooting was related to the Geller event.
Right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who has proposed banning the Quran, spoke earlier Sunday at the event. The exhibit’s organizers planned to award a $10,000 prize for the “best caricature of the Prophet Muhammad,” the New York Times says.
