Members of the FBI investigate from the rooftop at 1120 Empire Central Place work near the scene where a shooter opened fire on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, September 24, 2025 in Dallas, Texas.
Stewart F. House | Getty Images
The gunman who killed one detainee and wounded two others at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas was trying to target ICE personnel and appeared to be planning his attack for months, authorities said Thursday.
The shooter, identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn of Texas, “specifically intended to kill ICE agents” in Wednesday’s ambush, said Joe Rothrock, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, at a news conference.
Rothrock said Jahn’s plans began “months in advance.” The special agent noted that Jahn obtained a bolt-action rifle in August and pointed to his research on Homeland Security facilities.
The strongest evidence of motive came from Jahn’s own words in a collection of notes found when FBI agents searched the shooter’s residence after the attack, Rothrock said.
Nancy Larson, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said that Jahn described ICE employees as “people showing up to collect a dirty paycheck” in one of those notes.
The notes also included a plan of attack and target areas, and they indicated that he did not want to kill or harm detainees.
Jahn also explicitly states in the notes, “Yes, it was just me,” Larson said. Authorities said they believe the shooter acted alone, though the investigation is ongoing.
Jahn’s actions are “the very definition of terrorism,” Larson said.
The news conference came hours after FBI Director Kash Patel said in an X post that Jahn had searched online for “Charlie Kirk Shot Video” as recently as the day of the attack.
Jahn also recently searched apps tracking the presence of ICE agents and downloaded a list of Homeland Security facilities, Patel said in the post.
Patel said agents recovered a handwritten note reading, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?'” The acronym likely refers to armor-piercing rounds.
Those details and other accumulated evidence indicate “a high degree of pre-attack planning” by Jahn, Patel said.
Authorities said Jahn fired “indiscriminately” at the ICE building from a nearby rooftop on Wednesday.
He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following the attack.
The two wounded ICE detainees remained in critical condition on Thursday, an agency spokesperson told NBC News. No ICE agents were wounded in the attack.
The shooter’s search for video of the shooting of Kirk, the conservative activist who was assassinated during a crowded event in Utah earlier this month, could add to the evidence about his motive for the attack.
The FBI has already revealed that unspent shell casings found near the shooter bore “anti-ICE” messaging.
One of the unspent shell casings recovered was engraved with the phrase “ANTI ICE.”
Source: FBI
Jahn’s brother, Noah Jahn, told NBC he was surprised by the political messaging.
“I didn’t think he was politically interested,” Noah Jahn said of his brother. “He wasn’t interested in politics on either side as far as I knew.”
Joshua Jahn was registered to vote as an independent in Oklahoma, NBC reported. He has also been linked to addresses in Texas.
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ICE said in a statement Wednesday evening that the shooter opened fire on the building and at a transport van located at the facility’s sallyport.
All three detainees were shot while inside that van.
There were five to seven others in the van who avoided the bullet spray, an ICE official told NBC. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told NBC’s Tom Llamas that his agents pulled some of those detainees out of the line of fire.
“The shooter was just shooting at random vehicles inside,” Lyons said. “There were some brave men and women on the ground that went into those vans, were pulling those detainees out while they’re under fire.”
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement, said that because of the Dallas attack and other incidents, “DHS will immediately begin increasing security at ICE facilities across the country.”
Migrant check-in appointments at the Dallas ICE facility scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday have all been postponed until Monday.
A Dallas Police Department vehicle sits near the scene of a shooting near a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Dallas, Texas, on September 24, 2025.
Aric Becker | Afp | Getty Images
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