PHOENIX (AP) – An undercover FBI agent who was investigating terrorism was driving past two Arizona men just before they opened fire outside a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in suburban Dallas in 2015, court records show, raising questions about whether authorities could have done more to stop the attack.
The records became available to The Associated Press in the criminal case against Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, a Phoenix man who was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison on criminal convictions that included providing support to Islamic State.
Kareem wasn’t at the event in Garland, Texas, but authorities say he provided guns used by Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi in the attack, instructed them on how to use weapons and watched violent jihadist videos with them.
Kareem was one of the first people brought to trial in the U.S. on charges related to Islamic State.
The court records also show that the unidentified agent had exchanged social media messages with one of the gunmen days before the attack that left the two attackers dead and a security guard wounded.