hours new to work the crime scene. our bomb unit is there. they re still working on the vehicle. and that s where we are at this time. so far as identification, we have not touched their body because they re close by the car. once that its cleared. weave will find out who they are, and exactly what was going on. we are in the process of interviewing any witnesses. along with the man that was shot. well the american freedom defense initiative is considered an anti-muslim group by an organization that tracks hate groups. cnn political commentator, ben ferguson, told my colleague, that organizers chose this venue outside of dallas because it hosted an event denouncing islamaphobia. ever since they said you have to stand with the prophet mow haemd prophet muhammad event.
shared with another suspect. here s what police say went down in the dallas suburb of garland last night. two men drove up to the curtis caldwell center jumped out of their car and began shooting. they hit an unarmed security guard before being shot and killed by police. inside the building hundreds were attending a mohammed art exhibit and cartoon contest being held by the american freedom defense initiative. now the keynote speaker a ditch politician on an al qaeda hit list and the executive director of an anti-islam group, our correspondent ed lavandera is following the latest for us from texas. tell us more, ed. good morning, carol. well you see the scene behind us just beyond these cars. you ll see fbi agents holding a blue tarp. that is where the bodies of the two suspected gunmen are lying on the street. what is interesting as you look at the scene here they didn t even make it inside the parking lot of the civic center. they had gotten out of the car and started shooting befo
the group said it intentionally picked this texas venue because another group held an event denouncing islamophobia at the same venue in january. pamela geller is president of the group stop islamization of america. joining us now is mark from the southern poverty law center. i want to start with a question. this group has spoken out against what they call islamization of america. they spoke in favor of free speech. they have spoke about the threat of islamic terror. does the fact they were attacked when they were trying to hold this meeting make their case? well, i m not sure it makes their case but it will certainly give a little boost to pam geller and her friends. let me start out by saying that absolutely nothing justified this attack at all. that said, pam geller to describe her as anti-islam and
and handled them and i ve seen them used before by fbi bomb techs, et cetera. you know, you re in a major metropolitan area. you ve got the dallas pd, major atf and fbi as well as other local pd so they have a lot of resources they can bring on scene. you mentioned pamela geller who s the head or spokesperson for the american freedom defense initiative. from what i ve been able to determine that, you know, law enforcement when this first happened, they very quickly moved to get her out of the area, probably considering she could be a likely target. i mean, anyone who was the spokesperson for an organization, you know, she would become the face, the voice. so she would be an obvious target if someone was going at this facility and at this particular meeting. we know that the meeting, the
attack and was well known importantly to the fbi. the fbi now searching the phoenix apartment that the two gunmen shared. the fbi collecting evidence there. now the group that held the event, the american freedom defense initiative, they were offering a $10,000 reward for the best cartoon of the prophet muhammad. the group is known to have opposed a building of a mosque near ground zero and have been accused by some of having anti-islam views. the keynote was a right wing politician who was on al qaeda s hit list. that s a bit of a context but the attack of an isis sympathizers on u.s. soil. elton simpson sent a tweet saying may allah except us as mujahideen. what more are we learning as we