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Published : 25 Sep 2025, 01:21 PM
A gunman, who wrote "ANTI-ICE" on an unused bullet, fired on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas from a nearby rooftop on Wednesday, killing a detainee and badly wounding two others before taking his own life, officials said.
US President Donald Trump and members of his administration seized on the attack as the latest instance of what they characterised as an escalation of politically motivated violence incited by the left.
They accused California Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democrats of stirring hate by unfairly vilifying law enforcement and conservative political figures.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo on X showing what he said was the suspect's unused ammunition. The shell casing of one round was inscribed with "ANTI-ICE”.
"While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack," Patel wrote. US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later said in a Fox News interview that the gunman "was targeting ICE," based on "evidence so far in this case”.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump accused "Radical Left Democrats" of stoking anti-ICE violence by "constantly demonising Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers with Nazis."
Invoking the recent assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, Trump said that "radical left terrorists" pose a "grave threat" to law enforcement and "must be stopped."
Trump said he would sign an executive order this week to "dismantle these domestic terrorism networks”. He offered no evidence to support the notion that "networks”, rather than individuals, were behind recent acts of political violence, or that left-wing perpetrators were any more prevalent than those on the right in recent years.
In a statement about the Texas shooting, the Department of Homeland Security said the suspect fired "indiscriminately" at the ICE facility, including at a van in the building's secured entryway where the victims were shot. DHS said one detainee was killed and two others were in critical condition.
Officials have not disclosed the identities of the victims.
Noem later appeared on Fox and confirmed media reports that the suspected gunman had been identified as Joshua Jahn, 29. She said he had fired into the building from a nearby rooftop.
Jahn's older brother, Noah, spoke with a Reuters reporter earlier in the day as Joshua Jahn's name began circulating online in connection with the shooting.
Noah Jahn, 30, said he was not aware that his brother harboured 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.
SHOOTING FOLLOWED KIRK KILLING
The shooting in Dallas 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 sniper during a speaking event on Sept 10 in Orem, Utah, fuelling fears of a new wave of political violence in the United States.
Kirk's murder set off a firestorm of political recriminations and deepened concerns among Trump's critics that the Republican president would use that killing to justify further cracking down on his perceived opponents.
A 22-year-old technical college student from Utah has been charged with murder in the Kirk assassination, though authorities have not suggested a precise motive for the attack.
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials have blamed, without proof, liberal organisations for fomenting unrest and inciting violence against the right.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order declaring the anti-fascist movement antifa a domestic “terrorist organisation” despite the fact that there has been no evidence made public linking antifa to Kirk’s death.
White House adviser Stephen Miller posted a video on X of California Governor Gavin Newsom describing ICE raids by "masked men, jumping out of unmarked cars" with "no due process" and calling such tactics "authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government”. Above the clip, taken from Newsom's guest appearance on Tuesday on CBS's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Miller wrote: "This language incites violence and terrorism."
Perpetrators of political violence "feel like they get cover when you have leaders in this country going out there and defending those types of actions," Noem said on Fox.
At a news briefing earlier on Wednesday, Joseph Rothrock, special agent in charge of the FBI's Dallas field office, said investigators were treating the pre-dawn attack at the ICE office as an "act of targeted violence”.
The site was an ICE field office where immigration officers conduct short-term processing of recently arrested detainees.
The Trump administration’s aggressive use of ICE agents as part of its crackdown on undocumented immigrants has sparked outcries from Democrats and liberal activists. ICE detention facilities have increasingly become flashpoints of unrest, with heavily armed agents deploying pepper ball guns, tear gas and other chemical agents in clashes with protesters.
An ICE facility in suburban Chicago, where protesters have gathered daily since a Trump administration immigration surge began earlier this month, erected fencing on Monday after several demonstrators, including the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, were injured in a clash with agents last week.
Wednesday's attack was the third shooting this year in Texas at a DHS facility. A police officer was shot in July at an ICE detention centre in Prairieland, and a Michigan man was shot dead by agents after opening fire on a US Border Patrol station in McAllen in July.
