Wednesday morning’s deadly shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility hit home for acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, who later called the incident his “worst nightmare” and said he was placing the agency’s offices nationwide on higher alert.
“Seeing the photos today, some of the bullets were in an office that I used to have there,” said Lyons, who previously worked in the Dallas field office, in an interview with NBC News. “It’s just a horrible feeling. People always ask me what keeps me up at night. It’s the safety of the men and women of ICE.”
Three detainees were shot in the attack. One died at the scene, while two others were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. The shooter, identified as Joshua Jahn, fired from a nearby elevated position or rooftop into the field office’s sally port. He was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
No ICE officers were injured.
“My heart goes out to that detainee’s family,” Lyons told NBC News. “We’re charged with their protection, their custody. Nothing like that should happen.”
The detainees were shot while still in vehicles at the sally port, where they are brought into the facility.
“The shooter was just shooting at random vehicles inside,” Lyons said. “There were some brave men and women on the ground that went into those vans, pulling those detainees out while they were under fire.”
The attack occurred during the early morning commute in Dallas, near businesses, an interstate, and apartments. Lyons noted that even though the incident was a targeted attack on ICE, “it really could’ve hurt anyone.”
Law enforcement and Republican politicians have suggested the shootings were politically motivated, coming as ICE deportation efforts have ramped up nationwide, ABC News reported.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that assaults on ICE officers have climbed more than 1,000%.
Two other federal immigration centers in Texas came under attack in July. A gunman opened fire at the McAllen Border Patrol sector annex, and in Alvarado, a police officer was shot at an ICE detention facility.
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