Gunman Who Killed Lyft Driver, Shot Up Plano Police HQ, Might Have Been Inspired by Terrorists
FBI Dallas special agent in charge, Matthew DeSarno, declined to provide details of which foreign organization could have inspired the alleged shooter
Garland Police Department (screenshot)
When Garland police arrived at the crime scene in Block 400 of Forest Gate Drive early Sunday, they found a body, a spokesman said at a press conference Monday. But the initial investigation got stranger from then on.
The deceased, a 26-year-old Isabella Lewis, had picked up the alleged shooter during a shift as a Lyft driver. The man who killed her then stole the car.
Shortly after noon on Sunday, the shooter went to Plano Police Headquarters, opened fire and was finally shot. No one was injured, the authorities say. The authorities then found a strange piece of paper in Lewis’ car.
Plano and Garland Police and the FBI identified the shooter as Imran Ali Rasheed, a 33-year-old who, according to public records, was a resident of Garland.
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“Rasheed could have been inspired by a foreign terrorist organization to commit these acts,” said Matthew DeSarno, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas office. “I did not find any evidence that it was directed by or in contact with foreign terrorist actors. He was inspired by rhetoric. He was not instructed to do this. ”
During the press conference, DeSarno declined to provide any further details about which organization supposedly inspired Rasheed and did not want to shed light on the contents of the note Rasheed left.
DeSarno said the FBI investigated Rasheed between 2010 and 2013 and “determined he was not a threat”.
“At this point, we do not believe the suspect was helped by anyone or that anyone else was involved in the incident,” he added.
Garland police said they had no evidence that the gunner targeted Lewis and Plano police did not explain why he targeted police headquarters.
If the suspicion turns out to be true, it would not be the first ideologically motivated act of violence in Dallas-Fort Worth in recent years.
In May 2015, two gunmen were shot dead while trying to carry out an attack on the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, where the “First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibition and Competition” was held by anti-Muslim groups. One of the shooters was reportedly linked online with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS).
In July 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson, reportedly inspired by harsh black nationalist ideologies, shot dead five police officers in Dallas after protesting downtown Black Lives Matter.
In June 2019, Brian Clyde opened fire with an AR-15 in a federal court in downtown Dallas before being fatally shot. No one was seriously injured, but federal authorities later said Clyde was linked to a far-right ideology.
Earlier this year, federal agencies caught a Grand Prairie neo-Nazi named Christian Mackey on federal gun charges. Mackey, who allegedly encouraged others to shoot Jews and African Americans, has since pleaded guilty.
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