A gunman on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas on Wednesday, killing one detainee and critically injuring two others before turning the gun on himself.
The deadly incident is being described as a “targeted attack” by the FBI, with President Donald Trump and the administration condemning what they believe is a politically-motivated attack against ICE agents.
At this time, no clear motive has been identified as authorities work to piece together what happened. No law enforcement officers were hurt in the shooting.
FBI Director Kash Patel said “an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind the attack” and shared a of one of the unspent shell casings with the phrase anti-ICE engraved.
Here is a breakdown of everything we know about the gunman and the deadly attack.
Who is Joshua Jahn?
Joshua Jahn, 29, was identified as the alleged shooter, sources confirmed to multiple outlets on Wednesday.
In the hours after the shooting, FBI agents gathered at a Collin County home believed to be owned by Jahn’s parents. Jahn himself may have been living in Durant, Oklahoma, at the time of the attack, KDFW reports.
The outlet reports investigators have discovered what they believe to be Jahn’s vehicle, which had a sticker of a map depicting radioactive fallout in the U.S. The map, stuck to the car, read, “Radioactive fallout from nuclear detonations have passed over these areas more than 2x since 1951.”
Noah Jahn, the suspect’s brother, he doesn’t know if Joshua had any political interests before the attack and claimed he “didn’t have strong feelings about ICE.”
The brother described Jahn as “unique” and said they grew up in Allen, Texas. Noah Jahn told the outlet he and his brother were Boy Scouts and that the suspect was interested in coding but was unemployed.
Jahn was planning to move onto their parents’ property in Oklahoma, his brother told the outlet.
Another man who had known Jahn since he was a teenager told NBC that Jahn had voiced opinions on politics in the past. He described a conversation with Jahn a few years ago on migrant caravans coming to the United States.
“He was just upset about how people were not understanding people’s desperation to get out of bad situations and how immigration was being handled as a whole,” the Boy Scouts troop member told the outlet anonymously.
The man said Jahn was “passionate about his stance on issues” but didn’t think he would be the “action type of person,” and was surprised to see Jahn identified as the gunman.
Jahn was a registered independent who last voted in November 2024, according to voting records.
A mugshot from 2016 shows Jahn after he was booked in the county for delivering marijuana in an amount greater than 1/4 ounce but less than five pounds. He pleaded guilty to the felony charge, court records revealed.
A Collin College spokesperson told the Associated Press via email that Jahn studied there “at various times” between 2013 and 2018.
In 2017, Jahn reportedly drove cross-country to work a job harvesting marijuana for several months, Ryan Sanderson, owner of a legal cannabis farm in Washington state.
“He’s a young kid, a thousand miles from home, didn’t really seem to have any direction, living out of his car at such a young age,” Sanderson told the outlet.
Jahn’s mother had reportedly posted a series of anti-gun rants on Facebook aimed at Republican lawmakers just a few years ago, the reports.
Sharon Jahn lashed out at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and GOP senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn over their support for the Second Amendment in now-deleted resurfaced Facebook posts from May 2022, the outlet reports.
Jahn’s sister, 27-year-old Kioko Jahn, has in Collin County and is believed to have had other run-ins with authorities in Texas since 2017, the Post reports. Charges for the sister range from misdemeanor assault and marijuana possession, according to police records.
Neither local nor federal officials have formally identified Jahn as the gunman.
Who are the victims?
One detainee was killed and two others were critically injured, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday. At this time, authorities have not publicly released the names of the victims.
The detainees, who were in the country illegally, were waiting to be transferred to a longer-term facility, ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan told Fox News.
DHS said they were shot while in a van in the sally port of the Dallas field office.
One of the injured detainees is a Mexican national, a statement from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The detainee is hospitalized with serious injuries and the consulate has reached out to the family to offer support and legal help. The ministry also sent a diplomatic note to be able to visit the victim at the hospital.
The ministry also said the head of its North American Unit expressed concern for the victim and asked for clarification of the shooting’s events and unrestricted access to the person, the statement reads.
What happened?
According to the Dallas Police Department, officers responded at around 6:40 a.m. to the 8100 block of North Stemmons Freeway.
A preliminary investigation by police determined that a suspect opened fire at a government building from an adjacent building.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told CNN that information indicated a possible sniper in the moments after the attack. The gunman used a bolt-action rifle, according to a law enforcement official who spoke anonymously to The Associated Press.
The attack comes two weeks after political activist was assassinated during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University.
The suspected shooter “fired indiscriminately at the ICE building, as well as at a van in the sallyport where the victims were shot,” DHS said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told CNN the gunman was not trying to target a specific area of the facility.
“We know that there was bullet holes all over the building. It wasn’t just targeted at one specific area or through a window,” Noem said. She told the outlet that the shooter “was very much focused on hitting anyone that he could inside and making sure that they were victims of this attack.”
Calls condemning political violence
In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump blamed the attack on the “Radical Left.”
“This is despicable! The Brave Men and Women of ICE are just trying to do their jobs, and remove the “WORST of the WORST” Criminals out of our Country, but they are facing an unprecedented increase in threats, violence, and attacks by Deranged Radical Leftists. This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to “Nazis.” The continuing violence from Radical Left Terrorists, in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, must be stopped.”
Sec. Noem said the “horrendous killings must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences.”
Vice President JD Vance on social media that the “obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop.”
Vance commented on the shooting again while delivering remarks about President Donald Trump’s tax cuts in North Carolina.
You don’t have to agree with my immigration policies, you don’t have to agree with Donald Trump’s immigration policies — but if your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement, you can go straight to hell and you have no place in the political conversation of the United States of America,” he told the crowd.
The White House called out Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett for recently comparing ICE to “slave patrols” in a
It’s rhetoric like this that leads to violence — and it MUST STOP,” the White House wrote.
The DHS described the attack as an “attack on law enforcement” in a statement
“This was an attack on ICE law enforcement,” the department stated. “This horrific attack occurred amidst the 1000% increase in assaults against @ICEgov. Politicians and media pundits must stop the vile lies and smears designed to demonize and dehumanize ICE law enforcement. This shooting must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences.”
Sen. Ted Cruz delivered a strong message demanding that political violence stop, saying, “your political opponents are not Nazis,” in a message to Democrats.
“This must stop. To every politician who is using rhetoric demonizing ICE and demonizing CBP, stop,” Cruz stated. “To every politician demanding that ICE agents be doxed and calling for people to go after their families, stop. This has very real consequences. Look, in America, we disagree; that’s fine. That’s the democratic process, but your political opponents are not Nazis.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton condemned the incident, calling the attack “another despicable assault on law and order.”
“The epidemic of Leftist political violence must end. Democrats have fostered an environment of evil, emboldening radicals to kill, steal, and destroy. But we will never surrender,” Paxton