MCKINNEY: A gunman who wrote “ANTI-ICE” on an unused bullet killed one detainee and wounded two others on Wednesday when he fired on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas from a nearby rooftop before taking his own life, officials said.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo on X of what he said was the suspect’s unused ammunition, showing the shell casing of one round inscribed with the phrase “ANTI-ICE” along the side.
“While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack,“ Patel wrote.
U.S. President Donald Trump quickly politicized the incident on his Truth Social platform, accusing “Radical Left Democrats” of stoking anti-ICE violence by “constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to Nazis.”
Invoking the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk two weeks ago, Trump said “Radical Left Terrorists” pose a “grave threat” to law enforcement and “must be stopped.”
Trump added he would sign an executive order this week to “dismantle these Domestic Terrorism Networks,“ though he gave no evidence to support the notion that left-wing political violence posed any more of a threat than violence from the right.
In a statement about the Texas shooting, the Department of Homeland Security said the suspect fired “indiscriminately” at the ICE facility, including at a van in the building’s secured entryway where the victims were shot.
The department initially said two victims were dead and one injured, before later issuing a corrected statement that one detainee had been killed and two others were in critical condition.
Officials have not disclosed the identities of the victims.
Kirk, co-founder of the conservative student political group Turning Point USA and a close ally of Trump, was shot dead by a sniper during a speaking event on September 10 in Orem, Utah, fueling fears of a new wave of political violence in the United States.
NBC News and Fox News, both citing sources, identified the gunman in Wednesday’s shooting as Joshua Jahn, 29. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm their reports.
Jahn’s older brother, Noah, spoke with a Reuters reporter earlier in the day as Joshua Jahn’s name began circulating online in connection with the shooting.
Noah Jahn, 30, said he was not aware that his brother harbored any negative feelings about ICE.
“I didn’t know he had any political intent at all,“ said the older brother, who lives in McKinney, Texas, around 30 miles north of Dallas, as did his sibling.
At the time of the Reuters interview, Jahn said he was not sure whether his brother was involved but that he had begun to fear the worst after none of the family could reach him by phone on Wednesday.
FBI agents were observed by Reuters entering a house in McKinney at the address listed in online records for Joshua Jahn on Wednesday afternoon.
‘Targeted violence’
Kirk’s death set off a firestorm of political recriminations and deepened concerns among Trump’s critics that the Republican president would use that killing to justify further cracking down on his perceived opponents.
A 22-year-old technical college student from Utah has been charged with murder in the Kirk assassination, though authorities have not suggested a precise motive for the attack.
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials have blamed, without proof, liberal organizations for fomenting unrest and encouraging violence against the right. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order declaring the anti-fascist movement antifa a domestic “terrorist organization” despite the fact that there has been no evidence made public linking antifa to Kirk’s death.
At a news briefing in Dallas, officials emphasized the investigation was still in its early stages. Authorities were treating the attack as an “act of targeted violence,“ Joseph Rothrock, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, told reporters.
Wednesday’s shooter opened fire on the office from atop an adjacent building around 6:40 a.m. local time (1140 GMT), police said.
Law enforcement officers were not injured in the shooting, officials said. The attack took place at an ICE field office, not a detention facility, where ICE officers conduct short-term processing of recently arrested detainees.
The Trump administration’s aggressive use of ICE agents as part of its crackdown on undocumented immigrants has sparked outcries from Democrats and liberal activists. ICE detention facilities have increasingly become sites of conflict, with heavily armed agents deploying pepper ball guns, tear gas and other chemical agents in clashes with protesters.
An ICE facility in suburban Chicago, where protesters have gathered daily since a Trump administration immigration surge began earlier this month, erected fencing on Monday after several demonstrators, including the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, were injured in a clash with agents last week.
Wednesday’s attack was the third shooting this year in Texas at a Department of Homeland Security facility. A police officer was shot in a July incident at an ICE detention center in Prairieland, and a 27-year-old Michigan man was shot dead by agents after opening fire on a U.S. Border Patrol station in McAllen in July – REUTERS