POLICE SHOOTINGS AFTERMATH
Five Dallas officers killed by sniper
Snipers killed five police officers and wounded seven more in Dallas Thursday evening.
An Army veteran killed by Dallas police after the sniper slayings of five officers during a protest march refused to surrender and told authorities that he was upset about the police shootings of two black men earlier this week and wanted to exterminate whites, “especially white officers,” officials said Friday.
The man identified as 25-yearold Micah Johnson was among the suspects in the attack that marked the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In all, 12 officers were shot.
Johnson was a private first class from the Dallas suburb of Mesquite with a specialty in carpentry and masonry. He served in the Army Reserve for six years starting in 2009 and did one tour in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014, the military said.
After the attack, he tried to take refuge in a parking garage and exchanged gunfire with police, who later killed him with a robot-delivered bomb, Police Chief David Brown said.
But before his death, he described his motive during negotiations and said he acted alone and was not affiliated with any groups, Brown said.
Brown blamed “snipers” for Thursday’s attack, but it was unclear how many shooters were involved. Authorities initially said three suspects were in custody and the fourth dead. Hours later, officials were vague and would not discuss details.
Law enforcement officials did not immediately disclose the race of the suspect or the dead officers.
The bloodshed unfolded just a few blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was slain in 1963.
The shooting began Thursday evening while hundreds of people were gathered to protest the killings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. Brown told reporters that snipers fired “ambush-style” on the officers. Two civilians also were wounded.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, called for calm, saying the recent violence can’t be allowed to “precipitate a new normal.”
Lynch said protesters concerned about killings by police should not be discouraged “by those who use your lawful actions as a cover for their heinous violence.”