A 22-year-old man opened fire with an assault rifle outside the Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas Monday before he was shot and killed by cops.
Brian Isaack Clyde, who was armed in a mask and combat gear, was identified as the shooter by FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Clyde was shot during a gun battle with federal officers and died at the scene just before 9 a.m. local time, according to officials.
Dallas Morning News photographer Tom Fox, who happened to be at the courthouse Monday morning, said he saw Clyde firing at a security guard, another man and a woman walking a golden retriever from the parking lot across the street.
Fox photographed Clyde after he was shot, shirtless with a tattoo of a red heart with the silhouette of a cat inside.
Police have not yet publicly identified a motive or if there were any intended targets.
Officers later detonated a “suspicious device” found in Clyde’s car, according to the Dallas Morning News.
No one else was injured in the shooting, officials said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Army confirmed to the Daily News that “Private 1st Class Clyde served as an infantryman in the Army from August 2015 to February 2017.”
He was also listed as a May 2019 “prospective” graduate at Del Mar College with an associate degree in applied science.
“Military has always been big in my family, so has education,” he said in a Facebook video viewed by the Dallas Morning News. “When I got out, I really didn’t have any other options, so I figure go to school.”
Social media posts reported by CBS DFW included “rants about the U.S. government” and the Branch Davidians, as well as a photo of ammunition.
“I don’t know how much longer I have, but the [expletive] storm is coming. However, I’m not without defense,” he says in the video, holding what the Dallas Morning News reported looked like a rifle wrapped with duct tape. “[Expletive] ready. Let’s do it.”
He also posted a photo of a swastika in April, calling it a “solution,” according to NBC News, as well as memes about involuntary celibates and conspiracy theories including “secret pedophile rings and CIA experiments.”
Clyde’s Facebook had been taken down by late Monday afternoon.
An FBI official said they are “aggressively pursing all (Clyde’s) social media activity.”
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