DALLAS — A 29-year-old man who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas intended to kill federal agents and incite terror, officials said Thursday, citing handwritten notes recovered from his home.
The gunman, identified as Joshua Jahn, carried out the early morning assault Wednesday from a rooftop near the ICE building. He targeted both the office windows and a van carrying detainees. One detainee was killed and two others critically injured. No ICE personnel were harmed.
FBI Dallas special agent Joseph Rothrock said Jahn wrote that he wanted ICE agents to feel “real terror” and noted that he did not expect to survive the attack. Investigators described the assault as carefully premeditated, with Jahn arriving around 3 a.m. with a ladder to climb the roof and firing indiscriminately by 6:30 a.m. He used a bolt-action rifle purchased legally in August.
Though Jahn claimed in his notes he hoped to avoid harming detainees, authorities said he knowingly fired on their transport van. ICE officials described how agents braved gunfire to pull detainees to safety and provide emergency aid.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Jahn had searched online for ballistics data and videos of high-profile shootings in the days before the attack. He also downloaded documents listing Homeland Security facilities and wrote “ANTI-ICE” on at least one bullet found at the scene.
Officials said Jahn appeared to act alone and did not link him to any extremist groups. His brother, Noah, expressed shock, saying Jahn had never shown strong political views. Former acquaintances described him as unemployed and interested in coding, with a brief stint working on a cannabis farm in Washington state.
The attack comes amid heightened threats against immigration enforcement. On July 4, gunmen opened fire outside a Texas detention centre, and days later another man attacked a Border Patrol facility in McAllen. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has since ordered tighter security at ICE sites nationwide.
Federal investigators said the Dallas shooting showed a “high degree of pre-attack planning” and underscored the growing risks faced by ICE personnel. “He wanted to cause terror,” Rothrock said.