(NewsNation) — The suspected shooter involved in Wednesday’s deadly targeted attack at the Dallas ICE field office likely acted alone after conducting multiple online searches of the deadly shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and information surrounding Dallas-area ICE facilities, officials announced on Thursday.
Joshua Jahn, 29, was identified as the person linked to Wednesday’s deadly shooting, which killed one ICE detainee and critically injured two others. Federal officials on Thursday described the shooting as a “targeted, assault-style attack” that was designed to terrorize ICE officers and agents.
Jahn was found dead near a rifle used in the shooting and unused shell casings, one of which had “Anti-ICE” written on it in blue ink.
In handwritten notes found at his residence, Jahn described ICE employees as “people showing up to collect a dirty paycheck”. Nancy Larson, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said that Jahn planned to maximize damage to ICE agents, facilities and minimize damage to detainees being processed at the field office.
The fact a detainee was killed in the attack is a “tragic irony”, Larson said.
Offiicials did not specifically answer how many shots were fired at the field office, which is used as a processing center where detainees and transported to ICE detention centers after being processed. Larson said that the building was riddled with gunfire.
No ICE officers were injured in the shooting, which Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughin described as a sniper shooting “indiscriminately” at the facility from a nearby rooftop. Gunfire hit three detainees who were in vans parked inside the facility at 6:40 a.m. on Wednesday.
Officials said during a news conference on Thursday that Jahn used a ladder that he was seen transporting with his car around 3 a.m. on Wednesday to access the rooftop of a nearby building.
Evidence shows proof of advanced planning before deadly shooting
Joseph Rothrock, the special agent in charge at the Dallas FBI bureau, said Thursday that Jahn legally purchased an 8 mm bolt action rifle that was used in the deadly shooting in August.
A search warrant executed at Jahn’s residence on Wednesday led investigators to loose notes that mapped out a game plan for Wednesday’s shooting. Among the notes were handwritten writings that indicated that Jahn was acting alone. Larson also said a note was found that read, “good luck with the digital footprint”, which indicated to investigators that Jahn destroyed evidence linked to the attack on the ICE processing center.
Evidence found at the residence also indicated that Jahn did not expect to survive Wednesday’s attack, which officials said appeared to be “months in the making.”
On Wednesday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social media that FBI officials had found multiple searches of ballistics and the video of Kirk being shot and killed during a campus event in Utah, which took place two weeks before Wednesday’s shooting, Patel wrote on social media.
Patel also wrote that Jahn had downloaded a document entitled “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management”, which contains a list of Department of Homeland Security facilities. Since Sept. 19, Jahn also searched several mobile apps that tracked the presence of ICE officers.
A handwritten note found at Jahn’s residence read, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with (armor-piercing) rounds on that roof?”
No other government agencies besides ICE were mentioned in the writings discovered at Jahn’s home. But officials said that writings included “crude language,” indicating that the 29-year-old had a hatred of the federal government.
The main target of threats was directed at ICE, investigators said. Marcos Charles, ICE’s field office director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, said Thursday has been amplified by politicians, on social media and by the media.
During Thursday’s news conference, Charles pleaded for the dangerous rhetoric directed at ICE officers to stop. He said the officers “are willing to put their lives on the line” and characterized them as heroes.
“Enough is enough with the harmful lies and violent rhetoric,” Charles said, adding that officials had warned future attacks on ICE officers would continue. “It has to stop.”
“We truly wish we didn’t have to say, ‘I told you so’, but here we are.”
The push to determine Jahn’s motive for the deadly ICE facility shooting
Jahn’s older brother, Noah Jahn, told Reuters on Wednesday that 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.
Asked about Jahn’s possible political leanings on Thursday, Rothrock said that in incidents like Wednesday’s deadly shooting, “people can be motivated to violence by any number of grievances.”
However, Rothrock added: “In this case, the clearest indication of motivation is (Jahn’s) own words. He wanted to cause terror. He wanted to harm ICE personnel.”
On Wednesday, the FBI characterized the shooting as a targeted attack. Elected officials, including President Donald Trump, blamed the “radical left” for politically motivated attacks. Trump repeated that idea on Thursday, telling reporters that incidents like the shooting at the FBI would likely get worse.
“The radical left is causing this problem. Not the right, the radical left,” Trump said. “Ultimately, it’s going to go back on them (and) bad things happen when they play these games.”
However, Democrats like Texas State Rep. Nicole Collier said that there should not be a rush to judgment in casting blame.
“When we’re talking about what happened, we don’t know what happened,” Collier told NewsNation on Wednesday. “So to place blame is premature.”
FBI’s role is not to determine motive but to collect evidence, ex-agent says
Tracy Walder, a former FBI and CIA agent and current NewsNation national security contributor, said on Thursday that the FBI’s collection of evidence is not centered on determining what Jahn’s motive may have been.
Walder told NewsNation on Wednesday that she believed Wednesday’s deadly shooting was a copycat effort that followed a similar blueprint used in Kirk’s shooting. However, she said on Thursday that while the evidence announced by Patel in his social media post, backs her theory, determining a suspect’s motive is not the role of the FBI.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the M.O. is very similar,” Walder said, adding that the evidence introduced by Patel shows planning.
With Jahn deceased, Walder said that the FBI will work to see if Jahn acted alone or whether others may have been involved in planning the deadly shooting.
“But the FBI’s job is not to determine motive. That’s the job of the courts or a prosecutor. People are not convicted on motive. They’re convicted on evidence. But because of the rhetoric, everybody is talking about motive.”