Police Brutality / Individual record
Elton Simpson
The Washington Post's Fatal Force database records Elton Simpson in a fatal on-duty police shooting on 2015-05-03 in Garland, TX. Individual circumstances and legal outcome require case-specific review.
- Record ID
- PB-168
- Incident date
- May 3, 2015
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Garland, TX
- Agency
- Garland Police Department
- Category
- Fatal on-duty police shooting
- Age (reported)
- 30
What happened
Elton Simpson was one of two gunmen killed by police outside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, on May 3, 2015. The center was hosting an event featuring cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Investigators and news coverage reported that Simpson and Nadir Soofi approached the site armed with rifles and began firing near a police vehicle, injuring a security officer. Responding police returned fire, killing both men. Federal active-shooter summaries also document the event as an armed attack rather than an ordinary traffic stop or unarmed encounter. The entry belongs in comprehensive fatal-police-shooting datasets, but this context is essential: the documented gunfire directed at security personnel and police should not be omitted when describing the use of force.
Investigation & findings
Individual legal and investigative outcome not yet reviewed.
Washington Post Fatal Force v2; 2015–2024
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- 427
- Race code in source
- B
- Race source method
- not_available
- Gender (source)
- male
- Armed status (source)
- gun
- Flee status (source)
- not
- Agency IDs (source)
- 455
Sources & records
- Primary source
- Additional source
- Methodology and national police killings trackingMapping Police Violence · Dataset/methodology
- Fatal Force v2 — fatal on-duty police shootings, 2015–2024The Washington Post · Dataset