Jewess Pamela Geller, co-founder of Stop Islamization of America
A police officer was wounded in a shootout with two men who were killed outside a controversial contest for cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in a Dallas suburb, officials said Sunday night.
The two unidentified suspects were killed in an exchange of gunfire with police after driving up to the Curtis Caldwell Center in a vehicle possibly stocked with explosives, according to WFAA-TV.
Their gunfire struck an officer with Garland Independent School District, whose injury is not life threatening, city officials said.
The exhibit was organized by the New York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative run by right-wing blogger Pamela Geller. The controversial contest was set to award $10,000 for the best cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Those drawings are considered insulting and blasphemous to many followers of Islam and have sparked violence around the world. The attack against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris inspired the idea for Sunday's event.
As a precaution, authorities installed extra security for Sunday’s event, including members of a local SWAT team, metal detectors and blockades around the school.
It cost Geller’s group an added $10,000 for 40 officers to handle security, an expense she described as “the high cost of freedom,” according to the Dallas Morning News.
On Sunday, Geller was swiftly evacuated from the school building when the gunfire erupted, according to a report.
“This is a war. This is war on free speech. What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters,” Pamela Geller wrote in a statement Sunday night.
At least three hours before the shooting, Geller was seen posing in Instagram photos with members of the SWAT team already there as the event’s security.
She was also pictured presenting a $12,500 check to artist Bosch Fawstin for his artwork depicting the Prophet Muhammad for winning the people's choice.
Witnesses inside the public school building including WFAA-TV reporter Jobin Panicker say they heard gunfire outside the building. They then saw a flurry of police officers rush outside when additional an string of three or four shots erupted.
Attendees were evacuated by a SWAT team to a secure room and were told two men had been shot outside.
Geller is no stranger to controversy.
Her group posted subway ads featuring a picture of a menacing man with his face masked in a Middle Eastern scarf next to a quote attributed to “Hamas MTV” that reads: “That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?”
The MTA last week decided to ban all political ads after a judge ruled that Geller’s group could post the ad. Geller’s group also vehemently opposed the building of an Islamic center blocks from the World Trade Center site.
The Southern Poverty Law Center considers Geller an extremist with anti-Muslim views.
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