Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let me start off by saying that I'm a person who believes very, very strongly in the power of prayer, and that prayer changes things. And so, I'm going to ask everyone, please join me in praying for the families of the folks who lost their lives today, pray for the speedy recovery for those who are hurt and were injured in what happened today.
(00:43)
But maybe even more to the point, we are a country and a city that needs prayer. So, I'm going to ask you all to join me also in praying for this city, that we can come together at a time like this, and that we can be there for one another the way we always have in times like this to support one another, help us all get through this very difficult time, not just in our city, but in our country.
(01:24)
And that's why I'd ask you to pray for our nation. There's a lot going on right now in our country. A lot of it's confusing. It's a scary time. I've got children, I've got three young children, and I'm here to tell you that it is challenging to explain to them what's going on in our country right now.
(01:47)
But I said before, and I'll say it again, I believe in the power of prayer to change things, and it can change the hearts of people. It can change this country. It can change the city. So, please pray for everyone who is affected by today's tragedy.
(02:05)
I also want to say thank you to the Dallas Police Department, and say thank you to the Dallas Sheriff's Department, the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, the Texas Fire and Public Safety, and all of our various federal law enforcement partners who acted so quickly today to make sure that today's tragedy wasn't worse than what it was.
(02:31)
So, on behalf of the City of Dallas, I want to say thank you to all of you, and you're going to hear from some of those folks later, but I wanted to let you know that we appreciate what you all do, not just today but every day to help keep us all safe.
(02:47)
And lastly, and this is really important, I would ask all of you, all of you, all of the City of Dallas residents who can hear me right now, let's be patient, let's remain calm, and let's let our law enforcement partners, our police department do their job. This is an active investigation. There's still a lot of unanswered questions, and I want to encourage all of you to exercise a little bit of restraint and allow them to do their job to help make sure this continues to be a safe city, and that they can help us figure out what happened here today.
(03:40)
But with that, I want to say, again, thank you to all the folks who came out this morning from our law enforcement community. I'll turn it over to our police chief, Daniel Comeaux, to speak a little bit more directly to the investigation, itself, and with that, Chief Comeaux. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Thank you, mayor. Today at approximately 6:40 A.M. we received an assist the officer call. We responded to the call, got to the scene, and we later learned that we had four individuals that were shot, two of them deceased, including the shooter. DPD quickly was able to locate the shooter who was deceased.
(04:26)
We're going to be working this investigation shoulder to shoulder with our fellow partners, the FBI is on scene, and right now I'm going to introduce you to the SAC of the Dallas Field Division FBI Joe Rothrock.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah. Good morning. My name's Joe Rothrock. I'm the special agent in charge of the Dallas FBI field office. I want to first start by thanking our partners in local law enforcement, specifically, the Dallas Police Department for their quick and timely response.
(04:56)
I can confirm at this time that the FBI's investigating this incident as an act of targeted violence. It is unfortunately just the most recent example we've seen of targeted violence to include here in North Texas where back on July 4th, we saw a coordinated attack carried out against an immigration detention center in Alvarado, Texas.
(05:16)
What I can also share with you is that early evidence that we've seen from rounds that were found near the suspected shooter contained messages that are anti-ICE in nature. Again, this is just the most recent example of this type of attack. This will be a whole of government response. There will be no resource not utilized to bring all those individuals who are responsible to bring them to justice, and to hold them accountable.
(05:49)
While we're not releasing identities of any victims at this time, what I can confirm for you is no members of law enforcement were hurt during this attack. If any member of the public has information that would help the FBI's investigation, I would ask that you please report that to 1-800-CALL-FBI. Again, any piece of information will be helpful, but this will be an ongoing investigation between us, a number of federal partners, and our local partners, again, to ensure that anyone responsible is held accountable.
(06:24)
With that, I will turn it over to my counterpart from the ICE Enforcement and Removal Office.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Good morning. My name is Joshua Johnson. I'm the acting field office director for ICE Dallas. I'll be brief with my comments, but I do want to start off by saying thank you to the Dallas Police Department, Dallas FBI, HSI, CBP, and ATF, and virtually every law enforcement officer in North Texas for your support.
(06:59)
This is the second time I've had to stand in front of you, and talk about a shooter at one of my facilities, and I think that the takeaway from all of this is that the rhetoric has to stop. There are people out there who are seeing what is being placed online, and they're coming and they're doing acts of violence against ICE employees.
(07:25)
So, that's all I have for today is that it's just got to stop. It's dangerous, and people are losing their lives. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
Thank you all so much for coming. We really appreciate it. Again, thank you all so much. As it was said here today, if you do have any information, reach out to 1-800-CALL-FBI. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Senator Cruz-
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
… [inaudible 00:07:46].
Speaker 7 (07:51):
This needs to stop. Violence is wrong. Politically motivated violence is wrong. It was two weeks ago today that we saw a political assassination in Utah that tore the heart out of much of this country.
(08:09)
This is the third shooting in Texas directed at ICE, or CBP. This must stop. To every politician who is using rhetoric demonizing ICE and demonizing CBP, stop. To every politician demanding that ICE agents be doxxed and calling for people to go after their families, stop.
(08:39)
This has very real consequences. Look, in America, we disagree. That's fine. That's the democratic process. But your political opponents are not Nazis. We need to learn to work together without demonizing each other, without attacking each other, and I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to the brave men and women of law enforcement. I want to say thank you to the brave men and women of ICE and CBP, and everyone who puts their lives on the line to keep us safe.
(09:13)
The divisive rhetoric tragically has real consequences. I hope that every one of us will-
Speaker 6 (09:20):
Can you [inaudible 00:09:21]?
Speaker 7 (09:20):
I hope that every one of us will pray, number one, for the safety of law enforcement that are risking their lives to keep us safe, number two, for the health of those who were shot and injured today. We still don't know the full details of who was injured, but for the families also of the victims of this shooting. Violence has no place. It is wrong. And we should come together. If we want to have a debate about immigration policies, we can do so in the halls of Congress without demonizing each other, and, especially, without demonizing the men and women who every day put on a badge, and go risk their lives to keep us safe. And we should not be putting language out there that inspires mad men to commit evil crimes.
(10:14)
Our prayers are with the men and women of law enforcement, and we ought to come together, and have some decency across the political aisle to say, "This violence is wrong, and it needs to stop."
Speaker 6 (10:26):
Senator, have you been told that immigrant detainees were the victims of today's shooting?
Speaker 7 (10:30):
My understanding is the details of who the victims are are still being ascertained. So, I don't want to go ahead of law enforcement releasing these details. What they have said is that no law enforcement was injured. And so, that's a natural inference, but I don't know the details.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
Special Agent, can you talk a little bit about some of the evidence? You mentioned [inaudible 00:10:49] a lot of questions. Our understanding is that some of the shell casings had some writing that was relevant to the building. [inaudible 00:10:59].
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So, I'm not going to go into any more details at this time. We will come back to you when we have more details to share. Again, our goal here will be transparency as those details become available, but we are still in the early stages of an investigation. Information is still coming in. When we have more details, we will come back to this group.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
[inaudible 00:11:19].
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I'm not going to be identifying victims at this time. The only thing I will confirm at this time is no law enforcement was injured. Certainly, you can respect law enforcement's need to make notifications.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
[inaudible 00:11:39].
Speaker 3 (11:41):
At this point in time, we're not going to take any additional questions from law enforcement. Again, I'd ask for you to respect the fact that this is an ongoing investigation, and as more details come available-
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Sir, we're not asking for [inaudible 00:11:51].
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I understand.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
[inaudible 00:11:53] if the victims are the detainees.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
The only thing I can say right now is no law enforcement was injured this morning as part of the attack. I won't be taking any more questions, and neither will law enforcement at this time. We'll come back to you later today, or the coming days when we have additional information.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
[inaudible 00:12:08].
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Thank you all.