According to Matthew DeSarno, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Dallas, the man suspected of killing a Lyft driver “may have been inspired by a foreign terrorist organization.”
This suspicion is based on the note found in the vehicle of the murdered man.
Garland police said the Lyft driver, identified as Isabella Lewis, had gone to pick 32-year-old Imran Ali Rasheed up on Sunday, Aug. 29, when he shot and killed her. Police responded to a call that alerted them of a gunshot wound in the 400 block of Forest Gate Drive. On arrival, they found Lewis with a gunshot wound. She was later pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
A few minutes later, at approximately 12:15 p.m., the police also received a call reporting a man “behaving erratically” in front of the Plano Police Department.
Before the officers could arrive at the scene, Rasheed had entered the Department’s lobby. According to officers, he displayed a handgun, raised it and at a point, fired in the direction of a civilian police employee who was attending to a visitor at the time.
While the employee and visitor reportedly hid in a secure room off the department’s lobby, police say two officers came from inside the building and exchanged fire with the suspect. While no police or visitor deaths were recorded, the shooter was shot at and killed.
Rasheed was identified as Lewis’ shooter on Monday. And in a quest to find what caused the murder and see if it was an act of terrorism, the Plano and Garland Police Departments determined that Rasheed wasn’t directed to commit the criminal acts.
DeSarno said that the police “haven’t found any evidence he was directed by or in contact with foreign terrorist actors.”
Officials further stated that, “He was inspired by the rhetoric. He wasn’t directed to do this.”
This is not the first time Rasheed would be tied to terrorism. He was the subject of a counterterrorism investigation from 2010 to 2013.
