BIZARRE details are emerging about the past of the man who shot three detainees, killing one, at an immigration office on Wednesday.
According to his former friends, suspect Joshua Jahn was an “edgelord” who failed at stand-up comedy in the years before he opened fire on a Dallas ICE facility and then shot himself.
Joshua Jahn in a police booking mugshot taken on April 6, 2016[/caption]
Unspent shell casings had ‘ANTI-ICE’ written on it, according to a picture posted by FBI Director Kash Patel[/caption]
Jahn, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday[/caption]
Jahn, 29, fired at the field office from a nearby rooftop and hit three detainees who were in a van in the facility’s sallyport at around 6:40 am on Wednesday, police said. No ICE officers were hurt.
As two victims were left fighting for their lives in critical condition, federal officials said the sniper’s deadly attack was “politically motivated” after they found “ANTI-ICE” written on his bullet casings.
However, his former friends told independent journalist Ken Klippenstein that they doubt the inscription was serious.
“He was most certainly an edgelord, an irony guy,” a friend who asked to stay anonymous told Klippenstein.
Edgelord is internet slang for someone who has nihilistic views and an edgy, dark sense of humor.
“Josh was an edgelord who wanted someone to get blamed. I think he tried his best to write something goofy … to rile people up,” the friend said.
In his Substack post investigating Jahn’s possible motive, Klippenstein shared audio of Jahn bombing a stand-up routine as he told multiple jokes that didn’t land during an awkward onstage appearance.
Jahn attempted comedy at least twice, according to the audio recording. It’s unclear when or where the clip was taken.
The gunman can be heard making a joke about reality TV in the audio, as well as one about Tinder.
“I have some extremely bad insecurity issues about myself, they constantly eat me up alive, and reality TV is a perfect remedy for that,” he said at the beginning of one joke.
Awkward laughter and a few groans can be heard a few seconds after Jahn tells some of his jokes, but for the most part, the crowd silently took in his poor attempts at entertainment.
After Jahn’s final joke, the crowd clapped following the nonsensical punchline.
“I knew a guy in the war and he got his hand cut off, unfortunately, and he bled to death,” he began.
“I’m trying to have some reverence here but I can’t help but think, his heart was pumping in vain.”
What we know about the ICE sniper
- Joshua Jahn, 29, was identified as the sniper who shot at an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday morning.
- FBI Director Kash Patel said evidence indicated that Jahn planned his attack to a “high degree.”
- Jahn monitored ICE agents on apps and even conducted searches for Charlie Kirk’s assassination video in the hours leading up to the attack, Patel said.
- The suspect’s older brother, Noah Jahn, said his sibling was not interested in politics nor did he have a “strong feelings about ICE.”
- Jahn’s mother railed against gun rights years before her son’s disturbing attack, her Facebook activity showed.
One of Jahn’s former friends compared the audio recording to the 2019 film Joker, which depicted Joaquin Phoenix as a loner who tried and failed at comedy during a scene eerily similar to the recording.
The movie ends with Phoenix’s character shooting and killing someone.
“The audio from his attempted stand-up routine where he bombs now resonates uncannily with Joker,” the friend told Klippenstein.
‘EDGELORD BEHAVIOR’
Most of Jahn’s former friends said they stopped speaking with the shooter because of his dark sense of humor, which was heightened by his obsession with video games and online forums like 4chan.
“If you’re having trouble finding people besides immediate family who knew him, that’s part of the story,” one friend told Klippenstein.
“Every mutual friend drifted away over that kind of edgelord behavior.”
Another said, “I mostly stopped talking to him when he took his 4chan/irony stuff into daily interactions.”
They added, “He was becoming unbearable … once he dropped out of college he had no obligation to be social and none of us reached out due to his edgelord behavior.”
His friends said he didn’t lean left or right politically, despite his mom posting about her liberal views on Facebook.
Jahn’s voting record listed him as an independent who last voted in November 2024.
The shooter’s brother, Noah, similarly said that Jahn wasn’t interested in politics.
He also said Jahn knew how to shoot a gun because his parents owned them, but that he wasn’t a particularly strong marksman.
Jahn had been arrested for marijuana possession and had never been convicted of a violent crime.
POTENTIAL MOTIVE
On Thursday, the FBI revealed more information about the weeks before the deadly shooting.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Jahn had prepared for the shooting by downloading apps that tracked ICE agents and a document listing the Department of Homeland Security facilities.
Between September 23 and 24, he looked up guns and “Charlie Kirk Shot Video” multiple times.
He allegedly left handwritten notes behind that read in part, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘Is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?’”
Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph Rothrock said the gunman “specifically intended to kill ICE agents.”
“He fired at transport vehicles carrying ICE personnel, federal agents, and detainees,” Rothrock said.
“He also fired multiple shots into the windows of the office building, where numerous ICE employees do their jobs every day.”
Pictures shared by the DHS showed bullet holes in pictures that were in the ICE field office.
Bullet holes shot into a frame holding the American flag inside the Dallas ICE field office[/caption]
Investigators looking at a roof near the scene of the ICE shooting on Wednesday[/caption]
Jahn legally bought the rifle he used in the attack in August, police said.
On Wednesday morning, he fired indiscriminately from a roof looking over the facility, which he climbed up to on a ladder attached to his car.
After the attack, investigators found a disturbing map of nuclear tests in his car.
The identities of the victims haven’t been released.
One of the seriously hurt victims is a Mexican citizen, according to Mexico’s foreign ministry.
Immigration check-ins at the short-term processing facility are on hold until Monday.
Police swarming to the scene where three ICE detainees were shot in Dallas[/caption]
