Imam of TX Gunmen’s Mosque: I Didn’t See Any Red Flags

Usama Shami, the President of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, which was attended by the two gunmen who carried out the attack on the Mohammed Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland, TX, said the shooters “didn’t show any signs of radicalization” in an interview broadcast on CNN’s “The Lead” on Monday.

Shami described the shooters as “two members that, they didn’t show any signs of radicalization or any signs of even thinking about those things in that manner. So when that happens it just shocks you. You know? How good did you know these people? that’s the question that people ask themselves.”

CNN National Correspondent Kyung Lah, who interviewed Shami, added “he says he didn’t know. He knew Elton Simpson for some ten years. This is the president of the mosque, he saw this man worshiping very regularly, he says he didn’t see any sort of violence. As far as the other man, Nadir Soofi, he had a pizza shop, a young son he brought with him to the mosque. He says it’s just not the profile, he didn’t see it coming. And that’s really the story that we’re getting from a lot of the people here in this apartment complex…a lot of the people here said that they did not see that outward sign of radicalization. It just didn’t raise any red flags here.”

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