Gun in Muhammad Cartoon Shooting Tied to Fast and Furious

A gunman shot dead by police at an anti-Muslim event in Garland, Texas, in May reportedly bought his weapon five years earlier through the Justice Department's botched Fast and Furious operation.

Nadir Soofi, 34, bought a 9-mm pistol at a Phoenix gun shop in 2010 that sold the gun through the program run by the department's Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, and Explosives division, The Los Angeles Times reports.

When Soofi bought the gun, the purchase was placed on hold for a week, but it was lifted by authorities after only one day, according to the Times.

The controversial gun-running effort, initiated under former Attorney General Eric Holder, sought to use the firearms to track Mexican drug cartels. The scheme led to the deaths of two federal law-enforcement agents and pushed Republicans to seek Holder's impeachment.

Questions on whether Soofi's gun was sold through Fast and Furious led Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson to query Holder's successor, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, last month on the matter, the Times reports.

Soofi and his roommate, Elton Simpson, 30, were armed with assault rifles — and both were killed in the May 3 gunfight with police at an anti-Islam event held by activist Pamela Geller.

However, the FBI and Justice Department have since failed to provide serial numbers for the firearms used by Soofi and Simpson, raising fears that the guns were linked to the bungled gun-running scheme, the Times reports.

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