The sniper who killed five Dallas police officers
Thursday night as they guarded protesters at an
anti-police brutality march was angry about
recent shootings by police and “wanted to kill
white people,” according to authorities.
The gunman was identified as Micah Xavier
Johnson, 25, who was blown up by a police
robot while holed up on the second level of a
parking garage early Friday morning after
negotiations with police broke down.
During a search of his home, detectives found
bomb making materials, ballistic vests, rifles,
ammunition, and a personal journal of combat
tactics, Dallas police reported.
The murderous rampage was the deadliest day in
American law enforcement since 9/11 and
prompted President Obama to declare it a
“vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law
enforcement.”
"We're hurting," said Dallas Police Chief David
Brown in a Friday morning news conference.
"Our profession is hurting. Dallas officers are
hurting. We are heartbroken. There are no words
to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city.
All I know is this must stop, this divisiveness
betweeen our police and our citizens."
Prayers to the families, officers, all affected
by this. Good will triumph over this evil.
#PrayForDallas
8:18 AM - 8 Jul 2016 · Dallas, TX, United
States
2,818 2,957
Dallas Police Assoc
@DPA_PoliceAssoc
The protest was one of several around the
country, prompted by police shootings of black
men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Brown said the dead suspect told authorities he
was angry about police shootings.
"He said he was upset at white people," Brown
said. "He said he wanted to kill white people,
especially white police officers."
Initial reports said there was more than one
sniper, but at the news conference, Brown
indicated the dead suspect may have been the
sole gunman. Although he told police he was
"not affiliated" with anyone else, three others
were being held.
A woman was taken into custody near the garage
and two men reportedly seen packing a
camouflage bag into a Mercedes before speeding
from the scene were apprehended and detained,
the mayor said.
A Dallas police source estimated to Fox News
that at least 60 rounds were fired over a "large
kill zone." The source added that the shooting
would have required considerable planning.
The suspect was killed when police sent an
explosives-equipped robot into the El Centro
Community College parking garage to detonate
the bomb after negotiations went nowhere, Brown
said, refuting earlier reports that the man killed
himself. Before he died, he had claimed that
explosives had been set around the city, and
much of downtown Dallas was locked down while
police searched before determining there were no
bombs.
"It's a heartbreaking moment for the city of
Dallas," Mayor Mike Rawlings said. "I ask that
everybody focus on one thing right now, and that
is Dallas police officers, their families, those that
are deceased [and] those that are in the hospital
fighting for their lives."
Obama, speaking from a NATO summit in Poland,
said America is “horrified” over the shootings and
asked all Americans to pray for the fallen officers
and their families. He renewed his calls for more
gun control.
“There’s no possible justification for these kinds
of attacks or any violence against law
enforcement,” Obama said, hours after a pre-
attack speech in which he cited two racially
charged police shootings earlier in the week and
called for an end to bias in law enforcement.
Three of the cops killed were identified Friday.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit Police Officer Brent
Thompson, 43; and Dallas Police Officers Michael
Krol, 40, and Patrick Zamarripa, 32.
Witness Carlos Harris told the Dallas Morning
News the gunfire was "strategic. It was tap-tap-
pause. Tap-tap-pause."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement
saying he has directed the Texas Department of
Public Safety director to offer "whatever
assistance the City of Dallas needs at this time."
"In times like this we must remember -- and
emphasize -- the importance of uniting as
Americans," Abbott said.
The protesters had gathered after a Minnesota
officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile
while he was in a car with a woman and a child
in a St. Paul suburb. The aftermath of the
shooting was purportedly livestreamed in a
widely shared Facebook video.
A day earlier, Alton Sterling was shot in Louisiana
after being pinned to the pavement by two white
officers. That, too, was captured on a cellphone
video.
Other protests across the U.S. on Thursday were
peaceful. In midtown Manhattan, protesters first
gathered in Union Square Park. In Minnesota,
where Castile was shot, hundreds of protesters
marched in the rain from a vigil to the governor's
official residence. Protesters also marched in
Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Dallas Police Shooting
Source: Graphiq Staff Research.
Show details
4 10 4 10 uly 7 July
July 7, 2016 at 7 p.m. CDT
Protesters gather
in downtown
Dallas
Protesters gather at the
Belo Garden Park in
downtown Dallas to
demand change in the
wake of the deadly police
shootings of two black
men, Alton Sterling and
Philando Castile, earlier in
the week.
Protesters
gather in
downtown
Dallas
See More ›
Dallas Police Shooting | Graphiq
Anti-police protests have roiled the nation in
each of the last two summers following
controversial police shootings, including the 2014
shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and
last April's death of Freddie Gray while in custody
of Baltimore police.
A Department of Justice investigation cleared the
police officer who shot Brown, and, of the six
Baltimore police officers charged in Gray's death,
two have been acquitted, one's case was
declared a mistrial and three more face trial.
The attack made Thursday the deadliest day for
law officers since Sept. 11, 2001, when 72
officers died, according to the National Law
Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
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