‘Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror,’ Dallas sniper wrote: FBI
A man who used a ladder to climb early Wednesday with a rifle to a Dallas rooftop intended to kill ICE special agents and stir fear among their colleagues, but in what the region’s chief federal law enforcement official said was a “tragic irony,” instead shot to death a detainee.
A handwritten note that law enforcement authorities on Thursday said they had collected from the assailant’s house in the investigation of the shooting at a Dallas ICE field office offers information on the sniper’s motivation for firing upon the building and transport vans.
“Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?” Joshua Jahn wrote using an abbreviation for armor-piercing, according to the FBI.
Authorities seized devices found on his body and notes left in his bedroom in the probe of the shooting that killed one detainee and critically injured two others, FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Joe Rothrock said on Thursday at a press conference.
The writings included a crude reference to hatred of the federal government and Jahn’s intention to induce stress in the lives of ICE agents, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Nancy Larson said.
“He called the ICE employees ‘people showing up to collect a dirty paycheck,’” Larson said. “He wrote that he intended to maximize lethality against ICE personnel and to maximize property damage at the facility.”
The sniper fired into the windows of the building where ICE employees work and into transport vehicles that were carrying ICE personnel, federal agents and detainees, Rothrock said.
Video shows detainees, agents react to shooting
Surveillance video from the ICE facility shows detainees, with their arms and legs shackled, scrambling and crawling to get inside the building as the shots are fired. The video also shows agents ducking for cover as they try to locate the shooter and search the vans in the sallyport for victims.
Rothrock and other officials commended agents for their bravery. “When Jahn began firing, agents from both ICE and the ATF put themselves in the line of fire to move individuals off the transportation vehicles in an attempt to protect and rescue those that were injured,” Rothrock said.
Jahn, who shot himself to death on the roof of a three-story office building, was not a member of a political group, is believed to have acted without accomplices, and expected to die during the ambush, authorities said.
Jahn downloaded a document containing a list of DHS facilities, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X.
In August, Jahn looked for apps that track the presence of ICE agents. The shooter also searched online for information on ballistics and for the video of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination two weeks ago.
The gunman legally obtained the 8mm bolt-action rifle he used in the shooting, authorities said.
Patel said the evidence indicates “a high degree of pre-attack planning.”
Jahn, who was 29 and a U.S. citizen, recently had been living in Durant, Oklahoma. FBI agents searched his residence there and also were at the Collin County home of Jahn’s parents on Wednesday.
Jahn opened fire about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday at the ICE office at 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway near I-35E.
One victim ‘is only living on machines,’ brother says
Authorities said they will not publicly identify the victims until notifications are made to their relatives.
Mexican government officials said one of the injured victims is a Mexican citizen. His brother identified him as Miguel Ángel García Medina, Univision station KUVN reported.
García Medina is in grave condition after he was shot three or four times — with wounds to his flank, back, stomach and neck, Fernando Gutiérrez told KUVN.
“His wife tells me — because I don’t talk with the doctors — that he is in very bad shape and they want to disconnect him, because he is only living on machines; the machines are what is keeping him alive,” Gutiérrez said.
García Medina worked as a house painter and had been living in Arlington for about 20 years, his brother said. García Medina was facing deportation.
The family is originally from San Luis Potosí, about 250 miles north of Mexico City, and their mother was deported about two months ago, Gutiérrez said.
This story was originally published September 25, 2025 at 1:35 PM.
