Dallas Shooter Searched for Apps That Track ICE Activity, Hoped Attack Would Cause ‘Real Terror’ Among Agents

The man who orchestrated a “targeted attack” on a Dallas, Texas, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility this week searched for apps that track ICE activity, and sought to cause “real terror” among agents, the FBI revealed.

Joshua Jahn, 29, is suspected of shooting at an unmarked transport van driven by an ATF agent on Wednesday, killing two detainee and injuring one others. Jahn took his own life after the attack. Next to his body, authorities found shell casings with anti-ICE messages engraved on them.

Authorities have described the shooting as “an attack on ICE law enforcement,” a description bolstered by new evidence that “indicates a high degree of pre-attack planning,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Thursday.

On Jahn’s personal devices, the FBI found a document downloaded titled “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management,” which listed DHS facilities. Jahn also conducted multiple searches of ballistics, according to the FBI, and searched for “Charlie Kirk Shot Video” just one day before the Dallas shooting.

A handwritten note recovered from Jahn read, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?'”

Between September 19-24, Jahn also searched for apps that track ICE activity.

Numerous apps that alert individuals to the presence of ICE agents in their area have been launched since President Donald Trump began his crackdown on illegal immigration. It is unclear which apps Jahn used.

Anti-ICE tracking platforms are “no different than giving a hitman coordinates,” Acting Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE Marcos Charles said on Thursday.

“The media has been amplifying these apps even as we warned them it would only lead to more attacks on law enforcement,” Charles added. “We truly wish we didn’t have to say ‘we told you so’ but here we are.”

One of the most popular apps, ICEBlock, has tens of thousands of users, and was designed as an “early warning system.” ICEBlock users can pin a location on a map that describes where they saw ICE agents, what the officers were wearing, what vehicle they drove, and more. Other users in the area are then notified of the sighting.

The app is “100% anonymous and free for anybody who wants to use it,” its creator Joshua Aaron told CNN. “We don’t want anything being discoverable.”

Months ago, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons described ICEBlock as a tool that “basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs” and that “officers and agents are already facing a 500% increase in assaults.”

Another app, Coqui, similarly allows users to pin the exact location of ICE officer activity in their areas. When ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan voiced concerns to media that the app could “cause users to go and cause violence,” Coqui’s CEO said that he hadn’t “seen any evidence of anyone using these apps to incite violence.”

These apps, and similar ones like SignalSafe and ICE Tea Watch, have millions of users combined.

Real-time alert systems that clue users into where ICE officers are located threaten the lives of law enforcement officials, the Trump administration has said. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier this summer that “what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities and operations, and we’re actually going to go after them and prosecute them.”

Wednesday’s shooting was the latest in a series of attacks against ICE facilities and officers. ICE officials have experienced “a more than 1,000 percent increase in assaults,” according to DHS. In Texas alone, two separate attacks on ICE agents occurred in July.

During the first, on July 4, multiple assailants tried to ambush ICE officers at a facility in Alvarado. A standoff resulted in one Alvarado police officer being shot in the neck, and dozens of rounds of ammo being fired at correctional officers.

In the second attack, on July 7, a 27-year-old male shooter attacked Border Patrol agents as they entered a Border Patrol annex in McAllen, Texas, injuring two police officers and one Border Patrol employee.

Most recently, 36-year-old Bratton Dean Wilkinson was arrested in late August at the Dallas ICE facility after claiming that he had a bomb in his backpack.