FBI: Texas shooter may be inspired by foreign terrorists

GARLAND, Texas – Investigators are investigating whether a Texas man was inspired by foreign terrorists when he killed a Lyft driver in a Dallas suburb and then opened fire at a police station in another suburb where the police shot him dead.

Police said Imran Ali Rasheed ordered a Lyft in his hometown of Garland on Sunday and then shot and killed driver Isabella Lewis. His stolen car was found shortly after outside the police station in the nearby community of Plano, where Rasheed started shooting in the hall before being shot by officers, police chiefs in both towns said during of a press conference on Monday.

Matthew DeSarno, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Dallas, said investigators believed Rasheed had acted alone, but the 33-year-old left a letter stating that he “may have been inspired by a foreign terrorist organization “. on the letter and refused to identify the group.

DeSarno said Rasheed was the subject of a counterterrorism investigation from 2010 to 2013, when the case was closed after officers determined Rasheed was not currently a threat. The agency’s regional terrorism task force is working on the Lewis murder investigation, he said.

Authorities said there was no known connection between Lewis and Rasheed and it is not clear why he went to Plano Police Department. “We have no idea why he came to Plano to find the police,” said city police chief Ed Drain.

Rasheed died of his injuries at a hospital later on Sunday, Drain said. The police shootings at him are being investigated in cooperation with the Collin County District Attorney’s Office, he said.