{"id":42418,"date":"2016-07-08T09:33:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T13:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=42418"},"modified":"2016-07-08T09:33:18","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T13:33:18","slug":"snipers-kill-five-police-officers-in-dallas-wound-seven-others-during-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=42418","title":{"rendered":"Snipers kill five police officers in Dallas, wound seven others during protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tim Madigan, Michael E. Miller, Travis M. Andrews and Mark Berman
\nThe Washington Post<\/p>\n

DALLAS \u2014 At least five\u00a0Dallas police officers were killed and seven others wounded Thursday evening as a protest over recent police shootings was interrupted by chaos.\u00a0The Dallas police chief said an attacker told authorities \u201che was upset about the recent police shootings\u201d and \u201cwanted to kill white people, especially white officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a peaceful march, downtown here suddenly exploded into violence at around 9 p.m. local time when gunshots echoed through the streets, sending protesters and police officers alike scattering for cover. Authorities said two civilians were also injured during the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hurting,\u201d\u00a0David Brown, the Dallas police chief, said Friday morning. \u201cOur profession is hurting. Dallas officers are hurting. We are heart broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four Dallas Police officers and one\u00a0Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer were killed by\u00a0\u201csnipers\u201d perched atop \u201celevated positions,\u201d officials said.<\/p>\n

Videos circulating on social media showed\u00a0an individual\u00a0with an assault-style rifle\u00a0shoot a police officer in the back at point-blank range.<\/p>\n

A gunman, believed to be the same shooter, then engaged in a violent, three-hour standoff with SWAT officers, police said. Brown said the\u00a0attacker was killed when police detonated an explosive device near him after a hostage negotiator spoke with him.<\/p>\n

During this standoff, Brown said the suspect, who was not identified, told police that \u201che was upset about Black Lives Matter\u201d and angered by the recent police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota that dominated national news this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he\u00a0was upset about the recent police shootings,\u201d Brown said\u00a0during a Friday morning news conference.\u00a0\u201cThe suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially\u00a0white officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told\u00a0CBS News that in addition to the dozen officers shot, two other people also wounded by gunfire, though their conditions were not immediately known.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo words to describe the atrocity that happened to our city,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAll I know is this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three other suspects were also in custody, Brown said during a press conference before the standoff\u2019s end. Rawlings said one of those held was an African American woman.<\/p>\n

While Brown said the suspect in the standoff told authorities that \u201cThe end is coming\u201d and spoke about bombs being placed downtown, no explosives had been found by Friday morning.<\/p>\n

During an earlier\u00a0press conference, Brown said he wasn\u2019t sure if there were more suspects at large.\u00a0\u201cWe still don\u2019t have a complete comfort level that we have all the suspects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[Minn. governor says race played role in fatal police shooting during traffic stop<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

The mass shooting \u2014\u00a0the worst attack on\u00a0law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks \u2014 comes amid intense scrutiny of police officers and how they use deadly force, an issue that has reemerged into the national consciousness this week after videos circulated of a fatal shooting in Baton Rouge, La., and the aftermath of another in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Brown said he believed the four suspects were \u201cworking together with rifles triangulated at elevated positions at different points in the downtown area, where the march ended up going.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was unclear if the suspects were somehow connected to the protest, but added that detectives were investigating that possibility.<\/p>\n

At a press conference from Warsaw, Poland, Friday morning,\u00a0President Obama called the attack \u201cvicious, calculated and despicable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe I speak for every single American when I say we are horrified over these events,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n

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‘Vicious, calculated and despicable’: Obama on Dallas shooting<\/h3>\n

<\/i> <\/i><\/div>\n

<\/i>Play Video<\/span>1:54<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
President Obama gave remarks on the Dallas shooting that has left at least five police officers dead, while at a summit in Warsaw, Poland, on July 8.<\/span> (Reuters)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[World asks: \u201cWhat is going on in America?\u2019<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

He called on Americans to \u201cprofess our profound gratitude to the men and women in blue\u201d and to remember the victims, in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, our focus is on the victims and their families,\u201d Obama said. \u201cThey are heartbroken. The entire city of Dallas is grieving. Police across America, a tight-knit family, feels this loss to their core.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amidst protests, police heroics<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a night that began with a protest criticizing police, the chief\u00a0praised the heroism of his officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been more proud of [being] a police officer and being a part of this great, noble profession, seeing the courage, the professionalism and just grit to stay on scene, looking for suspects, knowing that we are vulnerable,\u201d he said during the press conference. Brown\u00a0said officers had run toward gunfire to help one another and civilians.<\/p>\n

Several people said officers helped save them, including one man who said an officer pushed him out of the way as shooting began. Bystanders captured footage of cops dragging fallen comrades out of the line of fire.\u00a0Cameras also\u00a0captured police officers choking back tears for their fallen colleagues. One officer appeared to brace himself against his SUV as grief overcame him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many stories of great courage,\u201d\u00a0Brown said.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nDallas Police respond after shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas on Thursday, July 7, 2016. Dallas protestors rallied in the aftermath of the killing of Alton Sterling by police officers in Baton Rouge, La. and Philando Castile, who was killed by police less than 48 hours later in Minnesota. (Smiley N. Pool\/The Dallas Morning News)<\/span><\/div>\n

The mayor Rawlings said it was \u201ca heartbreaking morning\u201d\u00a0and called for unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as a city, we as a country, must come together and lock arms and heal the wounds we all feel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[Americans began the week celebrating freedom. Now they\u2019re shocked and mourning once more.<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

The incident came\u00a0on a night when protests raged nationwide\u00a0over the\u00a0fatal police-involved shootings of two black men earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, Alton Sterling was fatally shot<\/a> by police in Baton Rouge. Less than 48 hours later, Philando Castile was fatally shot<\/a> by an officer in Minnesota.\u00a0Video footage of the killings or their aftermath spread quickly on social media, spurring widespread anger and renewing a debate over race and police departments\u2019 use of deadly force.<\/p>\n

As in other cities across the country, protesters gathered in downtown Dallas just before 7 p.m. for a march from Belo Garden Park to the Old Red Courthouse.<\/p>\n

For two hours, roughly 800 protesters marched peacefully, chanting and waiving signs. Their route took them past JFK Memorial Plaza, which marks\u00a0President John F. Kennedy\u2019s 1963 assassination.<\/p>\n

Just a few blocks from the spot of the infamous shooting, another\u00a0was about to begin.<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s where the war began\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

As dusk settled over the city, bullets suddenly began flying, the crack of high-powered ammunition cannoning off of skyscrapers and across downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n

Terrified protesters scattered in all directions as startled cops gazed up in search of the origin of the shots.<\/p>\n

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[Dallas shooting deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since 9\/11<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

Lynn Mays said he was standing on Lamar Street when the shooting began.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden we started hearing gunshots out of nowhere,\u201d he told the Dallas Morning News<\/a>. \u201cAt first we couldn\u2019t identify it because we weren\u2019t expecting it, then we started hearing more, rapid fire. One police officer who was standing there pushed me out the way because it was coming our direction \u2026\u00a0next thing you know we heard \u2018officer down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Undercover and uniformed police officers started running around the corner and \u201cfroze,\u201d Mays said. \u201cPolice officers started shooting in one direction, and whoever was shooting started shooting back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s where the war began.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

The shooting appears to have been heaviest around El Centro College, near\u00a0Market and Main Street.<\/p>\n

Protesters who had come to speak out against violence by police now suddenly found themselves in the crosshairs of violence apparently aimed at police.<\/p>\n

Renee Sifflet, a mother of three teenagers who attended the rally and march, said\u00a0she\u00a0lost track of one of her children during the ensuing chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought them here for a positive experience, something they could say they were part of when they\u2019re older, \u201d she told the Dallas Morning News. \u201cThen it turned negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u2018This is one of our suspects’: Dallas police tweet picture of wrong man after ambush<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

Robert Rodriguez, 30, was passing through Dallas with his 14-year-old son. They\u00a0weren\u2019t part of the protest but happened to be passing by it with the windows down when they heard four shots ring out. There was a pause and then a\u00a0continuous volley for many seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike a little war,\u201d he told\u00a0The Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Bullets sparked off of DART train tracks and smacked into walls of buildings behind their Yukon Denali, Rodriguez said. He circled the block and saw gunman dressed in camouflage, firing a long gun from his hip at officers. Officers crouched by a building returned fire. One cop car screeched to a halt\u00a0and its driver started firing as he stepped out.<\/p>\n

The gunman didn\u2019t appear to be hit because he continued to run and fire, Rodriguez said. He then turned another corner away from gun battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very intense,\u201d he said. \u201cMy only thought was to get somewhere safe and get my son out of the line of fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he saw a wounded female officer walking down the street holding her arm, being supported by another officer.<\/p>\n

Stanley Brown, 19,\u00a0was downtown near\u00a0El Centro\u00a0when the shooting began.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could hear the bullets whizzing by our car and hitting the buildings. A bullet missed our car by six feet,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cWe pulled into a garage and got out of our car and the bullets started hitting the walls of the garage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown ran around the corner of a building to take cover, only to see a gunman running up the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was ducking and dodging and when police approached he ducked into El Centro,\u201d he said. He saw a SWAT team rush the college building, enabling five people to escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn officer looked back at us and yelled that it was a terrorist attack,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At least one protester, identified as 37-year-old\u00a0Shetamia Taylor, was shot at\u00a0the rally.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/span>Dan Haggerty<\/span> @HaggertyCBS11<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Only non-police victim. Got shot, then shielded her boy from bullets. Recovering at Baylor.<\/p>\n