By Joseph Ax (Reuters) -The gunman who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas left behind a collection of notes at his home saying he acted alone in an attack that was intended to terrorize ICE agents and minimize harm to detainees at the facility, officials said on Thursday. Nancy […]
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Suspect in Dallas shooting sought to terrorize ICE agents, officials say
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By Joseph Ax
(Reuters) -The gunman who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas left behind a collection of notes at his home saying he acted alone in an attack that was intended to terrorize ICE agents and minimize harm to detainees at the facility, officials said on Thursday.
Nancy Larson, acting U.S. attorney for the northern district of Texas, said at a news conference that the shooter’s writings were discovered during a search of his home in Fairview, Texas, following Wednesday’s pre-dawn shooting.
Earlier in the day, FBI Director Kash Patel said the suspect had searched for apps in August that track the location of ICE agents and downloaded a list of local Department of Homeland Security facilities.
Patel also said in a social media post that investigators determined that the suspect had researched video of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s highly publicized assassination before carrying out Wednesday’s pre-dawn attack in Texas.
One immigration detainee at the Dallas site was shot dead and two others were critically wounded. No federal personnel were injured in the incident.
EVIDENCE THAT ICE WAS A TARGET
Within hours of the shooting, the FBI released a photo of an unused bullet found inscribed with the phrase “ANTI-ICE,” an early piece of evidence, officials said, that the immigration enforcement agency was the target.
The perpetrator, who the FBI said had opened fire from the rooftop of a nearby building, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound afterward, Larson told reporters.
He was later identified as Joshua Jahn, 29, a Dallas-area resident who previously attended a community college and had worked as a solar panel installer.
The investigation thus far, Patel said on Thursday, “indicates a high degree of pre-attack planning.”
Patel also outlined additional evidence reinforcing the theory that the attack appeared to have been aimed not at the detainees who were shot but at ICE, the primary enforcement agency of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
According to Patel, a handwritten note recovered from Jahn’s home read: “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘Is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?'” He did not provide photos or other documentation of the evidence.
Patel also said the suspect had downloaded a document titled “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management” containing a list of DHS facilities. And during a period of several days in August, the perpetrator had searched apps that tracked the presence of ICE agents.
One of the seriously injured victims is a Mexican citizen, according to Mexico’s foreign ministry.
The Dallas shooting came two weeks after Kirk, co-founder of the conservative student political group Turning Point USA and a close ally of Trump, was shot dead by a rooftop sniper during a speaking event in Utah, fueling fears of a new wave of violence in the United States.
(Reporting and writing by Joseph Ax; Additional writing and reporting by STeve Gorman; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Frank McGurty and Nick Zieminski)