One detainee has been killed and two others injured in a shooting at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) field office in Dallas on Wednesday morning, officials said.
Authorities have also confirmed that the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. NBC News, citing multiple senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation, reported that the suspect has been identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn.
The Dallas police department said that officers responded to a call at approximately 6.40am on Wednesday.
“The preliminary investigation determined that a suspect opened fire at a government building from an adjacent building,” the police said in a statement. “Two people were transported to the hospital with gunshot wounds. One victim died at the scene. The suspect is deceased.”
Department of Homeland Security officials previously said that two detainees were killed, but later issued a clarifying statement saying that the shooting killed only one detainee. It adds that two other detainees were shot and are in critical condition.
“The shooter fired indiscriminately at the Ice building, including at a van in the sallyport where the victims were shot. Three detainees were shot,” DHS said.
At a news conference on Wednesday morning, Joe Rothrock, the head of the FBI field office in Dallas, said that “rounds that were found near the suspected shooter contain messages that are anti-Ice in nature”.
One of the unspent shell casings recovered was engraved with the phrase “ANTI ICE”, according to a post from the FBI director, Kash Patel.
Authorities said that the FBI is investigating this incident as an act of targeted violence. They said they are not releasing the identities of any of the victims at this time, but confirmed that no members of law enforcement were injured during the attack.
At the news conference on Wednesday morning, the Republican senator Ted Cruz, who represents Texas, said that “politically motivated violence is wrong”, adding that “this is the third shooting in Texas directed at Ice” or Customs and Border Protection.
Parkland hospital in Dallas confirmed to the Associated Press that it had received two patients from the incident at the Ice facility. The hospital spokesperson did not have any details about their conditions.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kristi Noem, the DHS secretary, confirmed in a statement that the suspected shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and said that details about the incident were “still emerging” but confirmed that there were “multiple injuries and fatalities” at the Ice field office.
“While we don’t know motive yet, we know that our Ice law enforcement is facing unprecedented violence against them,” Noem said. “It must stop.”
Law enforcement officials told CNN that at least two of the victims were Ice detainees.
Todd Lyons, the acting Ice director, told the network that the “scene is secure” and said that three people were shot and taken to the hospital.
An Ice spokesperson has also told NBC News that all three people shot were detainees at the facility.
Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, said that the agency is “fully engaged, in conjunction with our state and federal law enforcement partners, at the crime scene in Dallas”.
JD Vance called the shooting an “obsessive attack on law enforcement” that “must stop”. Though, as noted above, no Ice agents were injured.
“I’m praying for everyone hurt in this attack and for their families,” the vice-president wrote on X.
Vance alleged the suspect was a “left-wing extremist”, which has not been corroborated by law enforcement – a motive is still unknown as of Wednesday afternoon.
“There’s some evidence that we have that’s not yet public, but we know this person was politically motivated,” Vance said, without providing or describing the evidence. “They were politically motivated to go after law enforcement.”
John Cornyn, another Republican senator who represents Texas, called the shooting “horrific”.
“While law enforcement investigates, I am keeping everyone impacted in my prayers,” he said. “My staff have been in touch with federal & local officials in Dallas, and we will make sure all resources are brought to bear in the investigation.”
Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, said in a statement that “Texas fully supports Ice”.
“This assassination will NOT slow our arrest, detention, & deportation of illegal immigrants,” he said. “We will work with ICE & the Dallas Police Dept. to get to the bottom of the assassin’s motive.”
During the news conference on Wednesday, Eric Johnson, the mayor of Dallas, urged residents to “be patient, remain calm, and let our law enforcement partners, and our police department, do their job”.
