FBI arrests man, says he had contact with 2 Texas attackers

CLEVELAND (AP) — A North Carolina man arrested Thursday on accusations that he tried to recruit people to join the Islamic State group had communicated with one of two men shot dead by a police officer in Garland, Texas, during an attack at an event where the Prophet Muhammad was being depicted in cartoons, the FBI said.

A federal magistrate in Charlotte ordered that Hendricks be detained and assigned a federal public defender, who did not return telephone messages.

An FBI affidavit details online communications between Hendricks and an undercover FBI agent posing as an Islamic State recruit who witnessed the attack at the suburban Dallas civic center in May 2015.

An off-duty police officer providing security for the event fatally shot both men before they could get inside.

Hendricks directed them to remove cellphone batteries to make themselves less traceable, suggested he was going to go off the grid at property he owned in Alabama, and told them to prepare for an eventual violent confrontation with police, the affidavit said.