Authorities said Thursday that the suspected gunman in the ambush attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas wanted to inflict “real terror” on federal agents and “induce constant stress on their lives.”
Police said Joshua Jahn, 29, opened fire Wednesday from a nearby rooftop onto the ICE location in Dallas, killing a detainee and critically wounding two others in a detainee transport van. The suspect then died by suicide. No ICE employees were harmed.
Nancy Larson, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said Thursday during a news conference that FBI search warrants at Jahn’s residence found notes and papers that explicitly stated, “it was just me.”
“Notably, these loose notes included a game plan of the attack and target areas at the facility,” Larson said at an event that aired live on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 free online streaming platform. “He called the ICE employees ‘people showing up to collect a dirty paycheck.’ He wrote that he intended to maximize lethality against ICE personnel and to maximize property damage at the facility. He hoped to minimize any collateral damage or injury to the detainees and any other innocent people.
“It seems that he did not intend to kill the detainees or harm them. It’s clear from these notes that he was targeting ICE agents and ICE personnel. The tragic irony for his evil plot here is that it was a day a detainee who was killed, and two other detainees that were injured when he fired into the sallyport. He also hoped his actions would give ICE agents real terror of being gunned down. And he did this to induce constant stress in their lives. He hoped his actions would terrorize ICE employees and interfere with their work, which he called human trafficking. And this, what he did is the very definition of terrorism.”
Earlier Thursday FBI Director Kash Patel disclosed new findings on X regarding the investigation, emphasizing evidence that the suspect studied high-profile acts of violence in the days leading up to the attack.
Patel said FBI offices in Dallas and Washington, D.C., have been working around the clock to examine digital devices, writings, and other materials recovered from the suspected gunman’s residence and personal belongings.
Among the evidence, investigators found the suspect conducted multiple internet searches Tuesday and Wednesday for ballistics and the “Charlie Kirk shot video.” Patel noted the significance of those searches, which came just before the attack, in helping investigators assess motive and planning.
Agents also determined that the suspect downloaded a document, “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management,” which included a list of Department of Homeland Security facilities. Between Aug. 19 and Aug. 24, he searched apps that tracked ICE agent activity. A handwritten note recovered by investigators read: “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?'”
“The accumulated evidence points to a high degree of pre-attack planning,” Patel wrote. “We will continue to share timely updates without compromising the investigation.”
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