By Rich McKay and Ted Hesson
(Reuters) -A Mexican immigrant wounded by a sniper in a shooting at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas last week has died of his injuries, an ICE official said on Tuesday, making him the second detainee killed in the attack.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified the deceased man as Miguel Angel Garcia, 31, who media accounts say was a house painter who came to the U.S. as a child.
Another immigrant from El Salvador was killed at the scene of the September 24 attack, his wife said. A third victim from Venezuela remains in a hospital, according to media accounts. DHS did not confirm the identities of those two victims or provide details about their immigration cases.
The shooting took place two weeks after Charlie Kirk, co-founder of the conservative student political group Turning Point USA and a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was shot and killed by a rooftop sniper during a speaking event in Utah. His killing has fueled fears that a recent wave of political violence in the United States could accelerate.
A GoFundMe page set up for Garcia’s family said he was the sole provider for his wife and children. His wife was expecting a baby “due to be delivered any day now.”
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said at a daily press conference that Mexican officials had made it possible for the man’s mother to travel to the U.S.
“They are in contact with the family in all respects, including financial and moral support, and, if needed, to file a legal complaint,” she said.
DHS said Garcia entered the U.S. illegally on an unknown date and was arrested by local police in Arlington, Texas, on August 8, and charged with driving under the influence and evading arrest. ICE requested that Garcia be held for possible deportation and took him into custody on the morning of September 24, the day of the shooting, DHS said.
Garcia had previous convictions in 2011 and 2017 for providing false information and evading arrest, DHS said.
Norlan Guzman-Fuentes, a 37-year-old from El Salvador, was the man killed at the scene of the attack, according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office and his wife, Yorlen Villatoro.
“He was caught in the crossfire of an attack he had nothing to do with,” Villatoro said in a separate GoFundMe page to raise funds to cover funeral expenses.
The third victim who remains hospitalized was Venezuelan immigrant Jose Andres Bordones-Molina, according to media reports.
No government personnel were injured in the shooting, which took place around 6:40a.m. outside an ICE office where people detained as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration were processed. The sniper fired “indiscriminately,” according to officials, on an area where detainees were being escorted from vehicles into the building.
The shooter, identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to officials.
The shooter left behind notes saying he acted alone in an attack intended to kill and “terrorize” ICE agents, whose work he viewed as “human trafficking,” officials said last week.
Nancy Larson, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said at a news conference last week that it seemed clear from the gunman’s writings “he did not intend to kill detainees or harm them.”
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Diego Ore and Sarah Moreland in Mexico City; Editing by Frank McGurty, Daniel Wallis and Nick Zieminski)
