Garland attacker was not linked to Fast and Furious sting, ATF announces

A gun purchased in 2010 by Nadir Soofi, one of the armed attackers killed in May while storming a Garland, Texas, cartoon convention, was not connected to the botched Fast and Furious sting operation, federal officials said Tuesday.

Ginger Colbrun, chief spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed that Soofi legally purchased the 9 mm handgun from the Lone Wolf Trading Co. store in Glendale, Ariz., as reported by The Times over the weekend.

But while the gun shop was the top outlet for the Justice Department‘s secret Fast and Furious firearms operation at the time of Soofi’s purchase, the sale was not part of the sting and Soofi was not a known criminal suspect, she said.

Previously, federal officials had refused to comment on the 2010 purchase.

“There was no firearm associated with the Garland attack and Fast and Furious,” Colbrun said. “His purchase of a handgun in 2010 was never reported to ATF as suspicious. He completed the background check as required, and he was never a suspect or person of interest in any ATF investigation.”

The purchase in February 2010 of the 9 mm pistol had raised deep concerns with the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, who two months ago wrote to the Department of Justice asking for information on all of the firearms traced to Soofi and Elton Simpson, and any connection they might have had to Fast and Furious.

Under the secret ATF sting operation, Lone Wolf cooperated with the ATF by selling illegal firearms so that agents could track the weapons back to Mexican drug cartels. Instead, U.S. agents lost track of almost all of the guns. Many turned up later at crime scenes south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and one was recovered after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot to death in southern Arizona.

Justice Department and ATF officials have yet to answer the letter from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Colbrun declined to comment on why the department has not responded.

But she stressed that Lone Wolf is a popular gun dealer in the Phoenix area and although Soofi purchased the 9 mm, it did not mean the sale was connected to Fast and Furious, even though it was made at the height of the sting.

Lone Wolf, she said, “is a high-volume firearms dealer, and they engage in many lawful sales.”

She also declined to disclose whether the 2010 handgun was one of the six firearms Soofi and Simpson brought with them to Garland, or if it was left behind at their apartment in the Phoenix area. “We don’t comment on pending investigations,” she said.

After driving from Arizona to Garland, Soofi and Simpson on May 3 tried to shoot their way into a convention offering a prize to the cartoonist with the best depiction of the prophet Muhammad, something many Muslims find offensive. They were dressed in body armor and carrying three handguns and three rifles, along with 1,500 rounds of ammunition. Both men were killed by local police after first wounding a security officer.

A third man, Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, has been arrested and is awaiting federal prosecution in Phoenix for helping to plan the Garland attack.