--- description: The mother of the gunman who attacked the Muhammad cartoon contest in TX became worried about her son when she heard he'd bought an AK-47. title: Texas Gunman's Mom Was Worried About His Extremism image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Texas Gunman's Mother Was Worried About His Extremism  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 7, 2015 3:42 PM CUT  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 7, 2015 3:42 PM CUT The mother of the gunman who [attacked a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas](http://time.com/3846684/isis-texas-muhammad-cartoon-contest-shooting/ "undefined") said she became worried about her son after he purchased an assault rifle. Sharon Soofi, mother of Nadir, who was killed with his roommate and fellow shooter during the May 3 attack, [told the Wall Street _Journal_](http://www.wsj.com/articles/mother-of-texas-gunman-sought-to-keep-son-from-extremism-1430951298 "undefined") that she learned in January her son had bought an AK-47 on Craigslist and was surfing radical Islamist websites. Soofi said her son assured her that shooting was just a hobby. “I had all the hopes and dreams that he would grow up and have a good life and raise a family and be successful,” she said. “For whatever reason he thought that wasn’t what he needed to do. Something else called him to take the path that he did.” ISIS [has claimed responsibility](http://time.com/3846684/isis-texas-muhammad-cartoon-contest-shooting/ "undefined") for the attack Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson attempted to carry out on a controversial cartoon contest near Dallas, Texas. Depictions of Muhammad are forbidden in Islam. [_Read more at the_ ](http://www.wsj.com/articles/mother-of-texas-gunman-sought-to-keep-son-from-extremism-1430951298 "undefined")[Wall Street Journal](http://www.wsj.com/articles/mother-of-texas-gunman-sought-to-keep-son-from-extremism-1430951298 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3850344/texas-comic-contest-attack-family-mom-extremist/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3850344/texas-comic-contest-attack-family-mom-extremist/"},"headline":"Texas Gunman's Mother Was Worried About His Extremism","datePublished":"2015-05-07T15:42:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:01:14.481Z","description":"ISIS has since claimed responsibility for the attack","url":"https://time.com/3850344/texas-comic-contest-attack-family-mom-extremist/","keywords":["Crime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3850344/texas-comic-contest-attack-family-mom-extremist/","name":"Texas Gunman's Mother Was Worried About His Extremism"}}]}] ```