Emma Ru
Audio By Carbonatix
Authorities say a series of handwritten notes and papers found in the home of 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, the Fairview man accused of opening fire at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on North Stemmons Freeway Wednesday morning, reveal a clear motivation to target and harm law enforcement agents. One ICE detainee was killed in the attack, and two others were critically wounded.
Nancy Larson, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, told reporters that a “collection of notes” found by FBI agents in Jahn’s home “explicitly stated” that Jahn worked alone in planning the attack on the Dallas ICE office. Authorities did not clarify whether the writings were found in Jahn’s home in Fairview or in an Oklahoma residence that was also searched on Wednesday afternoon.
“These loose notes included a game plan of the attack and target areas at the facility,” Larson said. “He called the ICE employees ‘People showing up to collect a dirty paycheck.’ He wrote that he intended to ‘maximize lethality’ against ICE personnel.”
According to Larson, additional writings by Jahn seemed to suggest that he hoped to induce “real terror” in ICE agents to “induce constant stress in their lives.” According to the Department of Homeland Security, one bullet was found at the scene with the words “Anti-ICE written on it.” Authorities did not state whether any additional bullets with inscriptions on them had been found at the scene, and did not say how many bullets had been fired during the shooting.
Jahn’s writings suggest he “did not intend” to harm anyone being detained by ICE, Larson said, although the “tragic irony” of the situation was that it was only ICE detainees who were killed and wounded in the attack.
Information about the detainee’s identities is still unavailable, authorities said, although the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that one of the individuals injured in the attack is a Mexican national. The two individuals who were critically wounded are still undergoing treatment, authorities said, although details of that treatment were not available. According to Marcos Charles, ICE acting executive associate director, the people wounded in the attack will still go through ICE immigration proceedings once healed.
Authorities said there is “no evidence” that Jahn belonged to any organized ideological groups, and that Jahn’s writings suggest a “significant, high degree of preplanning” in the months leading up to the attack. According to Joseph Rothrock, FBI special agent in charge, Jahn carried out the attack using a rifle he’d legally acquired in August of this year.
“His handwritten notes indicate that he did not expect to survive this event,” Rothrock said.
