Indictment: Phoenix Man Helped Plan Garland Cartoon Contest Shooting
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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - A Phoenix-area man has been charged with helping plan an attack on a provocative cartoon contest in Texas last month that ended with the two shooters' deaths.
An indictment filed in federal court in Phoenix alleges that Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem (aka Decarus Thomas) hosted the gunmen in his home beginning in January and provided the guns they used in the May 3 shooting.
Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson were killed by police after they opened fire outside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, where attendees drew cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that are deemed offensive to Muslims.
Former federal prosecutor Shamoil Shipchandler says the wording of the indictment makes Kareem just as responsible as the two who were killed.
"Every individual involved in the conspiracy is equally culpable with the other individuals because the acts in that conspiracy are going to be foreseeable - meaning he would be punished just as the individuals who took the action of firing the gun" says Shipchandler.
The indictment says Kareem practiced shooting with Simpson and Soofi in the desert outside Phoenix between January and May.
Kareem is charged with conspiracy, making false statements and interstate transportation of firearms with intent to commit a felony.
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