A 29-year-old Texas man opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas on Wednesday, the second instance in two weeks of a gunman setting up with a rifle on a rooftop, opening fire and communicating a message through writing on bullets.
Authorities identified the shooter as Joshua Jahn. He was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Vice President JD Vance said evidence that’s “not yet public” indicates the shooter was “politically motivated” to go after law enforcement and people enforcing the border.
Vance called the shooter “a violent left-wing extremist.” Authorities have yet to release an official motive. Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Joe Rothrock said the attack was “targeted violence.”
Three detainees in a van in the facility’s sally port were shot. No ICE officers were hurt in the shooting, Dallas police said at a news conference.
NBC 5’s Alicia Barrera has been near the ICE facility throughout the day. She has spoken to people who had loved ones inside when this happened and heard the gunfire.
One bullet found near the shooter had the words “anti-ICE” written on it, according to the FBI. Other recent shooters, including the suspects accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk and killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, have also engraved messages on bullets.
The anti-ICE messaging surprised the suspect’s brother, Noah Jahn.
“He didn’t have strong feelings about ICE as far as I knew,” Noah Jahn said of his brother, whom DHS officials said fired “indiscriminately” at the ICE building.
Public records show that the shooter registered as an independent in Oklahoma and last voted in November 2024.
In 2016, he was charged in Texas with delivering marijuana in an amount greater than ¼ ounce but less than 5 pounds. He pleaded guilty to the felony charge, records show.
Noah described his brother as “unique” but said he was not one he would have ever thought would be involved in a politically motivated shooting.
“I didn’t think he was politically interested,” he said. “He wasn’t interested in politics on either side as far as I knew.”
Noah said they grew up about 30 miles away in Allen, Texas. He said they were Boy Scouts, and his brother took an interest in coding but was currently unemployed. The suspect had been planning to move onto their parents’ property in Oklahoma, Noah said.
The last time Noah said he saw his brother was two weeks ago at their parents’ house, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
One man who said he had known the suspect since his early teens as a member of the same Boy Scout troop in Texas said the suspect did voice his opinions on politics, and recalled a conversation several years ago about migrant caravans entering 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 troop member said.
As law enforcement works to learn why a Dallas ICE field office was targeted in a deadly shooting, investigators are processing two crime scenes.
The troop member, who asked not to be named for fear of harassment, went on to say that the shooter was “passionate” about his stance on issues, but he didn’t know him to be “the action type of person.”
The troop member was surprised that he had been identified as the shooter.
“He was pretty against it,” the fellow troop member said of the notion of gun violence, “so that’s why this is making it even more surprising. He was not somebody that would condone those kind of actions.”
The troop member said he remained friends with him as an adult but lost touch about five years ago when the suspect said he was planning to move to Oklahoma.
He said the shooter’s father was an active troop leader. He said the suspect had helped him move a couple of times.
“He was one of those people that I would call for help, just in different situations, whether it be emotional support or physical support,” the troop member said.
According to Noah Jahn, his brother was “not a marksman” but knew how to use their parents’ rifle. Noah said he did not think his brother would have been able to fire accurately from a nearby roof.
Minyvonne Burke contributed.
As we learn more about the shooting, the suspect, and how any of this is related, we also want to get some context from law enforcement. Eric Jackson is the former special agent in charge of the FBI Dallas office.
