The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the shooting at a Dallas processing facility that left one detainee dead on Wednesday “could have been worse,” telling CBS News the sniper’s shots were “indiscriminate” and other people could have been hit during the attack.
Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, said the shooter, who officials say died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, “fired indiscriminately” into the ICE field office in Dallas and vehicles stationed there. He said a group of detainees was inside one vehicle at the time of the shooting, after being recently arrested by ICE.
Lyons said three detainees in ICE custody were shot, one fatally. He noted two detainees remained in critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon. ICE has said no agency employees were harmed during the attack.
But Lyons said the shooting could have been deadlier, citing the shooter’s “high-powered rifle” and the area he targeted. Officials say the shooter fired from a nearby rooftop.
“What’s even scarier is the location where the field office is. There’s businesses around there, busy I-35,” Lyons told CBS News during an interview in New York, noting the shooting occurred when people were going to work and school in the early morning.
“He could have, in his indiscriminate fire, hit people traveling to work, civilians on the ground,” he said, calling it “a very scary situation.”
“But unfortunately, someone did lose their life, and it was a definite attack on an ICE facility,” he added.
Lyons said he believes the shooter deliberately targeted federal law enforcement officials, citing bullet casings that officials said were found with anti-ICE messaging on them.
“When you have anti-ICE rhetoric written on the bullets, you know who they’re targeting,” he said.
Lyons identified the deceased shooter as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, saying preliminary information indicates he acted alone.
Asked if ICE plans to implement new security measures in light of Wednesday’s shooting, Lyons said the agency had already been operating under a “higher threat posture” but would “reevaluate how we’re doing operations.”
He said operations by ICE, which President Trump has charged with overseeing the largest deportation operation in American history, would not be slowed by the shooting.
“We won’t be stopped by it,” Lyons said. “We’re gonna ensure that we’re out there taking these public safety threats off the street, but we will have to go ahead and ensure that the men and women of ICE have all the equipment they need, all the protection they need and all the support they need.”
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