Deadly shooting at Dallas ICE facility follows trend of sniper-type incidents: Experts

As a motive stays beneath investigation within the deadly sniper-type shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) area workplace this week, legislation enforcement consultants mentioned the incident is a part of a daunting pattern of rifle-wielding shooters focusing on politicians, police and others from lengthy distances.

Since an alleged would-be murderer attempted to kill President Donald Trump throughout a July 2024 marketing campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the very least seven sniper-type incidents have unfolded throughout the nation, together with the Sept. 10 capturing that claimed the lifetime of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, in line with reporting by ABC Information.

Whereas such shootings have been a part of America’s historical past, together with the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. within the Nineteen Sixties, legislation enforcement consultants instructed ABC Information that they’ve by no means seen so many sniper-type incidents occurring in such a brief period of time.

“I imagine that is the subsequent chapter, if you’ll, in our historical past of violence, particularly active-shooter-type conditions,” Jesse Hambrick, a retired Georgia deputy sheriff and counter-sniper professional, instructed ABC Information.

The most recent incident occurred on Wednesday morning when the 29-year-old suspect, recognized by federal authorities as Joshua Jahn of Fairview, Texas, opened fireplace on a Dallas ICE facility, killing a detainee and leaving two others critically wounded, officers mentioned. The victims had been shot in an uncovered sallyport on the facility, officers mentioned.

Jahn allegedly deliberate the assault for months and opened fireplace from the rooftop of a personal workplace constructing overlooking the ICE facility, utilizing an 8mm bolt-action rifle he legally bought in August, Joe Rothrock, the FBI particular agent in command of the bureau’s Dallas workplace, mentioned at Thursday afternoon’s information convention.

Rothrock described the capturing as a “focused, ambush-style assault” and that the suspect engaged in a major, high-degree of pre-attack planning, together with researching the focused constructing and utilizing apps to trace the placement of ICE brokers.

Federal officers mentioned the suspect, a U.S. citizen who died by suicide, sprayed the size of the constructing with gunfire and left behind writings main investigators to imagine he wished to shoot ICE brokers, not detainees, and trigger terror, federal officers mentioned.

“Hopefully this can give ICE brokers an actual terror, to suppose, ‘is there a sniper with AP [armor-piercing] rounds on the roof?” the suspect allegedly wrote in a single handwritten notice, in line with FBI Director Kash Patel.

Patel disclosed in a social media put up on Thursday that the suspect additionally carried out a number of searches on ballistics and the ‘Charlie Kirk Shot Video’ earlier than finishing up the assault.

Just like the suspect within the Kirk capturing who engraved shell casings discovered on the scene with messages — together with “Hey fascist! CATCH! — authorities mentioned the suspect within the capturing on the Dallas ICE facility additionally wrote a message on at the very least one bullet casing discovered on the crime scene that learn, “ANTI-ICE.”

Like among the different sniper shooters who’ve carried out latest assaults, the suspect appeared ready to die, Hambrick instructed ABC Information.

“This is the truth, very truthfully, if somebody has no concern of dropping their very own life, it makes them dang close to not possible to forestall from taking someone else’s life,” Hambrick mentioned.

The capturing on the ICE facility got here simply two weeks after a gunman perched atop a constructing at Utah Valley College in Orem, Utah, shot and killed Kirk because the 31-year-old co-founder of the conservative grass roots group Turning Level USA was chatting with a big crowd at an out of doors occasion. The suspect, recognized as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested and charged with capital homicide.

“The long-range menace is new, and I believe that is all stemming from Butler,” mentioned Don Mihalek, a former senior U.S. Secret Service Agent, referring to the July 2024 assault on Trump, which killed one rallygoer and injured two others earlier than the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Criminal, was fatally shot by a Secret Service counter sniper. “I believe the Butler incident is being copycatted in some ways by different folks.”

Lower than a month after the assassination try on Trump, a sniper armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire from an overpass alongside Kentucky’s Interstate 75 close to London, hitting a dozen autos and injuring eight folks, authorities mentioned. The suspect, 32-year-old Joseph Sofa, a former member of the Military Reserve, was discovered useless from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following an 11-day manhunt, officers mentioned.

On Sept. 15, 2024, simply two months after the primary try on Trump’s life, a Secret Service agent foiled one other assassination try on the president at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Seaside, Florida. The agent noticed the barrel of a rifle protruding of the fence line and opened fireplace on the shooter, recognized as 59-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, inflicting him to flee the realm. Roth was convicted by a jury on Tuesday and faces a sentence of life in jail.

A number of of the latest sniper assaults have focused firefighters and legislation enforcement officers. On June 29, 2025, a 20-year-old suspect, recognized as Wess Roley, allegedly ambushed and killed two firefighters in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after he set a fireplace they responded to, officers mentioned. Roley was later discovered useless from suicide, authorities mentioned.

On Aug. 7, a gunman recognized by authorities as 61-year-old Carmine Faino shot and wounded two Pennsylvania state troopers in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, with a rifle he allegedly fired “from a place of tactical superiority” after calling 911 to report pictures fired close to a house he shared with a girlfriend he allegedly killed, officers mentioned. Faino was fatally shot by a particular emergency response crew, officers mentioned.

Three days after the Pennsylvania assault, a sniper opened fireplace on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention campus in Atlanta, authorities mentioned. The suspect, 30-year-old Patrick White, who officers mentioned blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him sick and depressed, died by suicide.

Mihalek mentioned such sniper shootings current a “super problem” for legislation enforcement to forestall, notably at a time when ambush assaults on legislation enforcement are dramatically growing.

In a report launched on Sept. 2, the Nationwide Fraternal Order of Police said that 229 officers have been shot within the line of obligation to this point in 2025, 31 fatally. In 2024, 342 officers had been shot within the line of obligation, together with 50 who had been killed, up from 46 in 2023, in line with the report.

There have been at the very least 50 ambush-style assaults on legislation enforcement this yr, leading to 66 officers being shot, 15 of them fatally, in line with the report. In all of 2024, there have been 61 ambush-style assaults on legislation enforcement officers nationwide, leading to 79 officers shot, 18 fatally, in line with the Nationwide Fraternal Order of Police.

Amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants within the nation, the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned in a press release this week that ICE officers are going through a 1,000% enhance in assaults towards them since January.

In an interview with ABC Information on Wednesday, Performing ICE Director Todd Lyons mentioned safety protocols are being ramped up at ICE services throughout the nation.

“Clearly, the subsequent step for us is ensuring our officers are secure. That is my largest concern each evening, particularly with these will increase [in assaults], that everybody will get residence secure each evening. We have got to verify our buildings and services are protected,” mentioned Lyons.

Hambrick instructed ABC Information that within the present menace atmosphere, legislation enforcement businesses nationwide needs to be reevaluating their safety techniques, together with working with property house owners of their communities to forestall quick access to rooftops.

“Regulation enforcement has to suppose now, ‘Once I stroll right into a setting the place I will be, I’ve obtained to lookup, and that is not pure,” Hambrick mentioned. “I’ve obtained to go searching 360 levels, and I have to safe these roofs.”

Mihalek mentioned he believes using drones to scan the tops of buildings may grow to be routine and assist legislation enforcement businesses shield officers.

“Drones might grow to be normal process in numerous these legislation enforcement operations, particularly for ICE,” Mihalek mentioned.