FBI was warned about Dallas gunman

DALLAS — A relative of the man who opened fire outside downtown Dallas’ federal building this week warned the FBI in 2016 that he shouldn’t be allowed to buy a gun because he was depressed and suicidal, his mother said Thursday.

Brian Clyde’s half brother called the FBI about his concerns, said their mother, Nubia Brede Solis. Clyde was in the Army at the time.

On Monday, Clyde opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle at the Earle Cabell Federal Building. He was fatally shot by federal law enforcement. No one else was seriously injured. His family believes Clyde wanted to be killed.

The special agent in charge of the Dallas FBI office, Matthew DeSarno, could not immediately be reached for comment.

But a federal law enforcement official confirmed the half brother called a national hotline on July 1, 2016, leaving a message to report that Clyde was “suicidal and had a fascination with guns.”

But the official said the half brother didn’t report a threat against an entity or individual, so the FBI couldn’t seize Clyde’s weapons.

The half brother declined to comment Thursday.

Public records show Clyde had no history of violence. Mental health struggles do not automatically prevent someone from owning a gun.

Because the FBI had no legal reason to pursue an investigation, no further action was taken.

Federal policy was changed after a gunman killed 17 people in February 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Now, warnings like the one about Clyde are routed to police departments where the calls originated so local officers can follow up and ask the caller for more details. Today, the half brother’s call would be sent to officers in Washington state, where he lives.

Brede Solis said the FBI never spoke to her about the warning call. She said the half brother told her about it when she called to tell him Clyde had been killed.

“He felt Brian couldn’t have a gun because he was institutionalized for two weeks and because he was in the Army,” Brede Solis said Thursday from her home in Corpus Christi.

Clyde, who had enlisted in the Army right out of high school, had been placed in a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2016, said Brede Solis, 59.

She recently found a report in Clyde’s military paperwork saying he had suicidal thoughts as early as six months after his enlistment — about February 2016.