The second shooter in the Garland, Texas terrorist attack has been identified as Nadir Soofi, 34. According to law enforcement officials quoted by the Washington Post, he was indeed Elton Simpson’s roommate, as some earlier reports indicated.
Elton Simpson’s father Dunston is speaking out. He denounced his son’s actions to ABC News: “We are Americans and we believe in America. What my son did reflects very badly on my family.”
Dunston Simpson described himself as a strict father, and said his son was “always a good kid,” but said Elton “made a bad choice.” Father and son had not spoken much recently, “because we had some very serious differences.”
According to his father, Elton Simpson was “on vacation” from his job in a dentist’s office at the time of the shooting, and had been away from the office for a few weeks.
The same ABC News piece quotes Elton Simpson’s lawyer from his 2010 terrorism trial, Kristina Sitton: “He grew up the most normal guy. Just a normal high school guy… Converting to Islam seemed like a good thing for him. He had been going down a bad path and then he found Islam. He never struck me as someone who would do this sort of thing. I’m not a bleeding heart, I’m a Republican. I’ve seen some pretty bad guys and he seemed pretty normal.”