. >> we are listening to officer joe harn for the garland police department, a spokesman for them.key word he said, we are diagnose cautious for everything. he went on to describe what they're doing. they've been monitoring potential threats for months in that area throughout texas because of the state of alert they have but had no specifics on anything like this unfolding tonight. there, we're looking at the live picture. he also wanted to say the picture we're looking at right now, the live video of that car, that belonged to the two susp t suspects. he went on to explain the bodies of the two suspects shot and killed by garland police offi r officers, when they tried to approach the muhammad art exhibit taking place at the caldweled called -- caldwell certainty and opening fire at a security officer that is okay, out of the hospital now. but those two bodies are still near the vehicles where they were shot. this is why. the officer wanted to explain they are there because police do not want to take any chances of getting close to that vehicle in the event it could have a bomb or

joe harn made clear that officer probably saved lives. these men showed up at this event at this center designed to kill people. want to bring in paul cruickshank, cnn terror analyst in london for us and former secretary of homeland security, julia, let me start with you. there are two facets to this. number one, an attempted terror attack on u.s. soil by someone, this man, elton simpson, one of the assailants who was an isis sympathizer with connections to people online. and secondly, the people of garland seemed awfully prepared. they had the right people in the right place before this event to thwart this attack. >> that's absolutely right. let's start with the second point which is knowing the kind of event being planned and knowing the controversy that surrounded this group. the garland police did exactly what's been anticipated in the post-911 structure which is local, state and federal law enforcement work together to try to protect the public. so good news is the system was in place. it knew it had a high profile event coming. ver

joe harn with garland police joining us live to update us on the situation. garland police killed two men who pulled up in front of the curtis culwell center. opened fire on a security guard. that security guard has been released from the hospital. he was treated and he is okay. police are still on the scene. they're searching the vehicle that the men were in. they are searching it just in case there may be an incendiary device in there. police are not saying if the shooting is in relation to this event. they say it is too early to tell. this event, we were here for it this afternoon. it started at 5:00. we were actually inside the building just about 30 minutes before. we had just left when the shots were fired. this event was a muhammad art exhibit and contest. it was held by the american freedom defensive initiative. they accepted entries of cartoons of the prophet muhammad considered offensive by some. but again, we don't know if the shooting is related to that. we are going to stay here on the scene. we are with police. we have been here all afternoon an

garland police spokesman joe harn. >> we were able to stop those men before they were able to penetrate the area and shoot anybody else or attempt to shoot anyone else. >> reporter: the failed attack targeted an anti-islam event in which 200 people were competing to draw cartoons of the prophet muhammad. muslims believe any drawing of prophet is blasphemous. police identified the gunmen as 30-year-old elton simpson and 34-year-old nadir soofi roommates from phoenix arizona. today f.b.i. agents searched the apartment the member shared. little is known about soofi those his mother, who lives near houston, told us this afternoon he is a muslim who prays five times a day. simpsonn american muslim convicted in 2011 of lying to federal agents in a previous terror investigation. police say he talked about traveling to somalia to wage jihad, but then he denied it to authorities. he was sentenced to probation. usama shami says the gunman attended his phoenix-area mosque. >> nobody thought these two individuals would think about committing a violent act. >> reporter: heavily armed security guards

which is to prepare for something possibly going wrong we've heard from the garland police officer joe harn who went on they were basically prepared for this and a lot of officers were on the scene because of the nature of this free speech event involving the prophetmuhammad. they were concerned something could go wrong and they were correct. casy? >> you can probably hear the news chopper that is bringing us pictures of the bomb squad at work as we speak. it is just after 11:00 here in texas. three minutes after midnight there on the east coast. this is an active investigation at this point. the words you just do not want to hear, an active shooting situation and that is what people were told happening here tonight attending this event. 200 people at the american freedom defense initiative contest. according to the organizers they had 350 submissions from all over the world and people were here gathering and looking at those cartoons this evening. two men rolled up into the parking lot of the center, and opened fire on an unarmed garland school district security officer, hitting him in the

garland, texas police department, the spokesman there, know harn, just telling nbc news that -- joe harn nbc news that the two sts got out of their vehicle in the parking lot. they then started shooting. they did injure a kbarland security guard. i want to be more specific. a garland security guard. that guard has been transported to a local hospital. we understand that that security guard is in stable condition. non-life threatening injuries. that's good news. and also we are hearing from the spokesman here, clint, that the men were then engaged by the garland police officers that you and i were talking about. and after that engagement, the two suspects were killed. there is a nearby wall mamplt that's been closed. the event center now being evacuated. it sooemd seems like the activities, at least the activities from this chopper cam as now the sun sets in the area is a little bit more quiet. but who knows what may be happening. the people in the events center were being taken out in buses. we can see one of those buses, perhaps, right now. as you look -- i'm not sure if you see the pic

it's all depending on this -- >> we've been listening to joe harn with the garland police departmentg us a few extra details about what happened outside that community center just a few hours ago this evening in that suburb of dallas. he tells us the bodies of the two gunmen are in fact outside the vehicle. they were dead, the vehicle continues to be searched by bomb experts looking for any kind of explosives. they're concerned that the cars, in fact, may have bombs inside. he said that could take 15 minutes, could take another few hours. as regards to the actual shooting earlier this evening, he said the exchange of gunfire was very brief. just a few seconds at most and then the two men were shot dead. he said that at this stage there is no threat to the immediate area. they believe that the two people who are dead are the only ones who were involved. he also said that the police had been monitoring the event for many, many weeks in the lead wrup to thleadup to this, but as to the actual events of this evening there's no evidence there was, in fact, a credible threat to the venue. a