By Joseph Ax
(Reuters) -The suspected gunman who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas had searched for apps in August that track the location of ICE agents and had downloaded a list of local Department of Homeland Security facilities, the FBI director said on Thursday.
The director, Kash Patel, also said in a social media post that investigators had determined the 29-year-old suspect, Joshua Jahn, researched video of the highly publicized conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination before the Texas attack.
The evidence gathered thus far, Patel said, “indicates a high degree of pre-attack planning.”
Officials have said the attack appeared to be targeting ICE, which has been the primary enforcement agency of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
According to Patel, a handwritten note recovered from Jahn’s home read: “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘Is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?'” He did not provide photos or other documentation of the evidence.
The gunman shot “indiscriminately” at the field office in northwest Dallas early on Wednesday morning from a nearby building’s rooftop, killing one detainee and badly wounding two others, officials have said. No law enforcement agents were injured at the office, where detainees were processed rather than housed.
The suspect took his own life after the attack, authorities said. An unused bullet found near his body had the words “ANTI-ICE” written on it, according to a photo that Patel released on Wednesday.
The Dallas shooting came two weeks after Kirk, co-founder of the conservative student political group Turning Point USA and a close ally of Trump, was shot dead by a rooftop sniper during a speaking event in Utah, fueling fears of a new wave of violence in the United States.
Kirk’s murder set off a firestorm of political recriminations, with Trump blaming the left for the violence before a suspect was even detained. The incident deepened concerns among Trump’s critics that the Republican president would use the violence to justify going after his perceived political opponents.
Trump and members of his administration immediately blamed left-wing activists for Wednesday’s attack, even though there has been no evidence released to suggest the suspect was linked to any outside groups or individuals.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump accused “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.” He said he would sign an executive order to go after “these domestic terrorism networks.”
In a joint statement, Democratic leaders in the House condemned the attack and called for less divisiveness.
“The political and ideologically-motivated violence in America has reached a breaking point this year,” they said. “We need leaders who bring the country together in moments of crisis – and that is what is required right now.”
Political violence has risen in the United States in recent years, with high-profile attacks targeting figures on both the right and the left, including Trump himself, who endured two assassination attempts during his 2024 presidential campaign.
The older brother of the suspect in the Dallas attack spoke with a Reuters reporter on Wednesday 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.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Frank McGurty)
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