A man who opened fire at an ICE field office in Dallas, killing two detainees, has been named by officials as 28-year-old Joshua Jahn.
Jahn, armed with a rifle, fired from on a roof adjacent to the facility and rained bullets on the migrants as they were being transported in an unmarked ICE van, police said.
Investigators said that they are still establishing a motive, but believe the horror shooting may have been fueled by anti-law enforcement sentiment.
Director Kash Patel said a bullet casing recovered at the scene was engraved with the phrase ‘anti-ICE.’
Jahn, a Texas native, was a registered independent in the 2024 election, but last voted in the Democratic primaries in March 2020, records showed.
The alleged killer had a criminal record that includes felony charges in 2016 from delivering marijuana in an amount greater than 1/4 ounce.
He had a disturbing poster taped to the side of his car at the time of the attack that showed a map of ‘radioactive fallout’ from ‘nuclear detonations’ across the United States, with most of the blasts depicted on the West Coast.
After Jahn was identified as the alleged shooter, his brother Noah told NBC News that he did not believe his brother was especially interested in politics and had not voiced his opinions on immigration before.
‘He didn’t have strong feelings about ICE as far as I knew,’ his brother said.
‘He wasn’t interested in politics on either side as far as I knew.’
Noah said his brother was unemployed but had previously worked as a coder, and was planning on moving in with their parents in Oklahoma.
He described Jahn as ‘unique’ without elaborating.
‘I didn’t think he was politically interested,’ he continued, saying he had last seen him two weeks before the shooting on Wednesday and nothing seemed unusual.
The siblings grew up in Allen, Texas, and spent their childhoods attending the Boy Scouts, Noah said.
He added that his brother knew how to use a rifle that his parents owned, but insisted that ‘he’s not a marksman, that’s for sure.’
When asked about the ICE facility shooting, he remarked: ‘He would not be able to make any shots like that.’
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN that the death toll stood at two as of Wednesday afternoon. A third victim was in serious condition.
Witness Arianny Sierra told NBC that she was in her car waiting for her husband to return from an ICE appointment in the facility when she heard shots ring out.
‘The shots began at around 6:10 a.m. There were like 20 shots in a row,’ she said.
The victims were ICE detainees, and no law enforcement were injured in the shooting. Officials said at a press conference on Wednesday morning that the sniper opened fire ‘from an elevated position’ as migrants were inside the transport van.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement calling the shooting ‘horrific’ and ‘cowardly.’
He said the state will continue to work with federal officials to detain and deport anyone in the country illegally.
‘We will not let this cowardly attack impede our efforts to secure the border, enforce immigration law, and ensure law and order,’ Abbott said.