Department of Homeland Security Acting Press Secretary Tyler Houlton confirmed in a statement late Saturday evening that a man who targeted a shooting spree on police officers in Pennsylvania was a terror attack. He also confirmed that the man, 51-year-old, Ahmed El-Mofty, entered the United States through the process of ‘chain migration.
El-Mofty targeted police near the capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
From Penn Live:
El-Mofty came on the radar violently Friday afternoon when he fired shots that struck a Capitol Police cruiser, putting a bullet through the windshield in an apparently unprovoked attack near Third and Walnut streets, just outside the state Capitol complex and the Ronald Reagan Federal Building. The officer in that car wasn’t injured.
Investigators said El-Mofty then chased and injured a female state police trooper before being killed by officers when he opened fire on them with two handguns at 17th and Mulberry streets. The injured trooper was released from the hospital Saturday.
The female officer’s injuries were considered ‘non-life threatening and she was reportedly “doing well.”
Police said that El-Mofty had not been on their radar before and they could not confirm at this time any relationship to any terrorist groups.
However, Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico did confirm that he had been to the Middle East as recently as October.
He said he did not know if El-Mofty was on any government terrorist watch lists. Marsico said he wasn’t sure regarding El-Mofty’s country of origin. The woman who said she is El-Mofty’s estranged wife is a native of Egypt. Authorities have said El-Mofty had ties to the East and West shores.
El-Mofty was in the Middle East “as recently as October,” Marsico said. He said he could not discuss where El-Mofty had been in that region, an issue that remains under investigation.
A family member claimed that El-Mofty was no terrorist, just a timid guy.
From ABC:
Ahmed Soweilam told ABC News that El-Mofty was a timid family man.
“He is a chicken,” Soweilam, who described himself as El-Mofty’s ex-brother-in-law, said. “He is not a terrorist.”
He said the 51-year-old El-Mofty was a native of Egypt and had two children with his wife, from whom he has been estranged for about six years.
Department of Homeland Security Acting Press Secretary Tyler Houlton called it a terror attack and said that chain migration was what allowed El-Mofty to be here in the United States.
“The Department of Homeland Security can confirm the suspect involved in a terror attack in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and another suspect arrested on terror-related money laundering charges were both beneficiaries of extended chain migration.”
Houlton’s second reference is to a woman on Long Island who was charged with using bitcoin to support ISIS activities.
The Trump administration has been critical of chain migration, which allows family members to sponsor relatives for immigration.
In last terrorist attack in New York City, by a suicide bomber under the Port Authority Bus Terminal, that terrorist, the suspect, 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, was also a product of chain migration. He was wounded and caused minor injuries to three other people.
[Note: This post was written by Nick Arama]
