Cop killings probe to go to DA’s office

Dallas officers were ambushed last year, 5 killed

DALLAS — An investigation into the ambush shooting a year ago that killed five Dallas law enforcement officers and injured nine others as well as two civilians will be turned over to the Dallas County District Attorney’s office early next week, police officials said Friday.

But it will take longer for details of that investigation to be released to the public because it will go before a grand jury to decide whether there was proper use of force during the incident that culminated in shooter Micah Johnson being killed by an explosives-carrying robot.

Friday marked the first anniversary of the sniper shootings that left five police officers dead.

Officers gathered about 200 shell casings, including 118 casings from the 44-foot hallway in El Centro College between police negotiators and Johnson, said Assistant Chief Randal Blankenbaker. He said investigators reviewed almost 500 files and thousands of hours of camera footage.

Twelve officer-worn body cameras had footage of the “Ground Zero” of the shooting, Blankenbaker said.

Investigators reviewed about a dozen other body cameras from officers running to the scene and 22 dashboard cameras. Also reviewed was video from street cameras, surveillance cameras and from college cameras and cell phone videos.

In the first 24 hours after the shootings, police made initial interviews with about 240 witnesses.

Any officer who fired his weapon had to have both his or her body camera footage reviewed and turn his weapon in for review, Blankenbaker said.