Joshua Jahn, the 29-year-old who shot at a Dallas ICE detention center on Wednesday, had a long digital history online but little indication that he was interested in politics.
The Trump administration has pointed to engravings on bullet casings that read ANTI-ICE as evidence of a leftist ideology, with Trump posting to social media, “This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to ‘Nazis.'”
But what has been uncovered so far of his social media footprint shows little interest in politics.
In at least two Reddit accounts, Jahn talked about video games, cars, “South Park” and marijuana.
Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein spoke with three people who knew Jahn since middle school but wished to remain anonymous, while providing photos and records corroborating their friendship.
Their accounts paint the picture of someone with a vaguely libertarian bent who despised both major parties and politicians generally (including Trump) but who didn’t engage with politics beyond that. He preferred edgy humor, video games and the message board 4chan, all of which he became increasingly steeped in as he withdrew from social life as well as their own friendships several years ago, they said.
None of his former friends believed that the “ANTI-ICE” inscription could possibly be sincere, feeling such a serious political statement was anathema to who Jahn was. His humor was deeply ironic, often offensive and aggressive to the point of alienation.
One friend called Jahn an edgelord — online-speak for someone who likes to espouse edgy, nihilistic views.
When asked about the ANTI-ICE inscription, the friend said, “Josh was an edgelord who wanted someone to get blamed. I think he tried his best to write something goofy … to rile people up.”
Another friend showed an example of “playful shock humor” where he posted rape jokes on a Facebook post.
One friend said that when Trump first came to power, Jahn “was not a fan” — though he had contempt for mainstream politicians in general. His friends say he had more of a libertarian bent, with one recalling an interest in the libertarian figure Ron Paul.
Klippenstein couldn’t find any recent friends with insight into Jahn’s current views.
“I mostly stopped talking to him when he took his 4chan/irony stuff into daily interactions,” one friend told me. “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.” Friends had dropped away as Jahn withdrew from social life.
But he was active in the gaming community on the platform Steam, where his history showed thousands of hours playing games, many shooting games, including more than 6,000 hours on Rust, 3,000 on Team Fortress 2, and 1,000 on Left 4 Dead 2. The account shows he played three and a half hours in the past two weeks.