Hearing Examines Video That Wasn’t Disclosed In Terror Case

Black America Web

Surveillance video taken on the day that two Phoenix men left for suburban Dallas to attack a 2015 Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest shows them in religious clothing, one of the men with a handgun on his hip and both carrying unspecified objects out of their apartment, an FBI agent has testified.

The footage showing Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi outside their Phoenix apartment before the attack in Garland was the focus of a court hearing Tuesday. The FBI didn’t turn over the footage until three years after a friend of Simpson and Soofi was convicted for providing the guns used in the attack.

Attorneys for Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence for providing the guns and other convictions, argue the footage would have been beneficial to their client’s defense. They are asking a judge to either grant him a new trial or throw out his convictions and bar prosecutors from refiling the charges.

The video wasn’t played in court, but FBI agent Amy Fryberger described its contents.

As part of an earlier investigation of Simpson, Fryberger requested that a camera be installed three weeks before the Texas attack because Simpson had been in contact with a person who was overseas fighting for a terrorist organization.

The camera was installed the day that Simpson and Soofi left for the anti-Islam event. The lead FBI agent in the Kareem investigation didn’t learn of the video until early 2019, prosecutors said.

Simpson and Soofi were armed with semi-automatic weapons, body armor and had a copy of the Islamic State flag when they arrived at the event. They were killed in a shootout with local police officers assigned to guard the event. A security guard was shot in the leg.

Kareem, who also was convicted of conspiring with Simpson and Soofi to provide support to the Islamic State terror group, wasn’t in Texas during the attack.