Three people, including detainees, have been shot at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dallas and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, federal authorities said.
Acting ICE director Todd Lyons confirmed the shooting during an interview on CNN on Wednesday.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin later told Fox News that no ICE agents were injured.
“We believe he was shooting at law enforcement and detainees from an apartment building,” McLaughlin said. “Detainees were among the victims of the shooting.”
The FBI said during a news conference Wednesday morning that it was investigating the shooting as “an act of targeted violence.”
“Early evidence that we’ve seen from rounds that were found near the suspected shooter contain messages that were anti-ICE in nature,” said Joe Rothrock, special agent in charge of the Dallas field office.
Two people were taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds and a third person died at the scene after the shooting, Dallas police spokesperson officer Jonathan E. Maner said in an email.
Officers responded to a call to assist an officer on North Stemmons Freeway around 6:40 a.m. local time Wednesday and the preliminary investigation determined that a person opened fire at a government building from an adjacent building, Maner said. The investigation is ongoing and a briefing is expected later in the day.
People who had appointments at the Dallas ICE office are turned away as police block off the street following the reported shooting. (Julio Cortez/The Associated Press)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said details were still emerging but the agency was confirming there were “multiple injuries and fatalities” at the field office.Â
Noem said the motive remained unclear but noted there has been an uptick of the targeting of ICE agents.
Dozens of emergency vehicles were seen along a highway near the ICE facility, which sits along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large commercial airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and just blocks from hotels catering to airport travellers.
Traffic cameras near the scene show six lanes of a normally busy freeway completely empty, with cars and semi-trailers at a halt on an interstate exit.
ICE and Homeland Security didn’t immediately provide additional details.
Other attacks in Texas
The incident comes several months after a Fourth of July attack at a Texas immigration detention centre injured a police officer, who was shot in the neck.
Attackers dressed in black military-style clothing opened fire outside the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, federal prosecutors said. At least 11 people have been charged in connection with that attack.
A separate attack took place several days after, when a heavily armed man opened fire on federal agents with an assault rifle at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, injuring a police officer before authorities shot and killed him.Â