New reports have revealed that Joshua Jahn, the 29-year-old that fired shots upon a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office, was active on PC gaming platform Steam just hours before the attack took place.
The attack occurred last Wednesday, where a gunman later identified as Jahn opened fire upon the ICE facility in Dallas with a sniper rifle from a nearby rooftop, before fatally shooting himself with the same rifle.
Shots were seemingly fired indiscriminately towards the facility, although they were aimed towards a van in the office's sallyport where detained immigrants were being transported between the building.
Three individuals were hit by Jahn's shots, with all being detainees of the facility. One has tragically passed away, whereas the other two are currently in criticial condition.
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Many have searched for the motivation behind Jahn's attack, with FBI Director Kash Patel sharing images of bullet casings that allegedly had 'Anti-ICE' written on them, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem declaring that it was driven "by hatred for ICE" in a statement.
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However, his friends have claimed that Jahn hated all political parties 'equally' with his brother adding that the killer "didn't have strong feelings about ICE" in an interview with NBC News.
As per Futurism, new reports relating to Jahn's gaming and internet habits have caused some people to reignite links between video games and violent activity, as investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein revealed in his Substack that Jahn was active on Steam just before he attacked the ICE office.
According to screenshots obtained by Klippenstein, Jahn had thousands of hours across various shooters, including Valve titles like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.
Additionally, he had registered 3.6 hours in the two weeks prior to the screenshot, and had played both of the aforementioned titles on September 24, presumably only a few hours before he would attack the ICE office at roughly 6:30 a.m.
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Alongside messages left by Charlie Kirk killer Tyler Robinson that were seemingly inspired by third-person shooter Helldivers 2, Jahn's interest in games has some people creating a link between this popular pastime and violence, throwing back the years to when games were also blamed for the Columbine shooting, and the outrage surrounding DOOM.
This also follows comments made from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who linked video games among other things to the disproportionate number of school shootings in America compared to other nations across the world.
Jahn's presence on controversial forum 4chan is also a concern, and perhaps something that should be more of an issue if you go by perspectives shared by people close to the killer.
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"He was never really into politics, especially not politicians," one friend claimed to Klippenstein, adding that "he was into politics only in the 4chan sense — contrarian, provocative, boundary-pushing for laughs, not conviction."
One also revealed that they "mostly stopped talking to him when he took his 4chan/irony stuff into daily interactions," adding that "he was becoming unbearable."
It was noted in addition that he frequently used "playful shock humor" such as rape jokes, with another friend interpreting that 'Anti-ICE' message on the bullet as Jahn wanting "someone to get blamed" in an attempt "to rile people up."