WASHINGTON, May 4 (Sputnik) — Extremists cannot justify violence by claiming that acts of expression, such as the Garland, Texas cartoon contest on the Islamic prophet Muhammad, are offensive, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday.
"In the mind of the President [Barack Obama], there is no form of expression that would justify an act of violence."
Details from the city of #Garland, Texas after two gunman start shooting at a Draw Muhammad event #Garlandshooting pic.twitter.com/9DJM5TOayv
— Randy Gyllenhaal (@RandyGyllenhaal) 4 мая 2015
"We saw a pretty important and notable display of bravery on the part of first responders and… because of their courage, the only person that was injured by these gunmen was a security officer," Earnest added.
It seems as though the #Garland event knew there might be trouble… this was posted 3 hours ago. pic.twitter.com/33tD7zDz3k
— Matt Karolian (@mkarolian) 4 мая 2015
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified one of the shooters in the attack as Elton Simpson from the US state of Arizona. The authorities had investigated Simpson in 2010 for his alleged connections with terrorists, according to local media.
The account that @atawaakul mentioned is tweeting what seems to be confirmation that @atawaakul was involved #Garland pic.twitter.com/C7LRahkDtW
— Peter King (@PTR_Says) 4 мая 2015
