Breaking | Snipers open fire on police in Dallas, killing five officers and wounding seven more
Witnesses at protests against police violence report dozens of gunshots that sounded like semi-automatic rifle fire
.png?itok=arIb17P0)
At least two snipers opened fire on police officers during protests in Dallas on Thursday night, killing five officers and injuring nine others, and another two civilians, police said.
Police earlier said 11 officers were shot and five were killed.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown told reporters the snipers fired “ambush style” upon the officers. He said police had a suspect cornered and were negotiating with him. Brown said 11 officers were shot, three of them fatally. Police later tweeted that a fifth officer had died. At least one more was in surgery. Some of the victims were shot in the back.
The officers were shot during a protest over two recent fatal police shootings.
Police said one suspect whom they had engaged in a shoot-out had been arrested and a bomb squad unit was investigating a suspicious package found near the suspect’s location.
A second “person of interest” had turned himself in, they added, though there was no word on the arrest of a possible second sniper.
The protests were part of demonstrations taking part in several cities against the fatal police shootings of African-American men in Minnesota and Louisiana this week.
Several hundred people attended the Dallas rally, which ended just before the shots rang out around 9pm, reports said.
Witnesses reported hearing dozens of gunshots that sounded like semi-automatic rifle fire. “The shots were coming from the roof,” a protester told KTVT television.
Video posted on the internet showed protesters marching when the shots rang out, scattering the crowd.
It was unclear whether any protesters had been hit.
Eyewitness broadcasts on Facebook Live gunfight on Dallas streets (language advisory)
Police warned protesters to flee the area, saying the scene remained an active-shooter situation.
SWAT teams were deployed to the scene, reports said.
Dallas Police Department has released a picture of a possible suspect in the shooting.
On Wednesday, a Minnesota officer 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.
The gunshots in Dallas came amid protests nationwide over the recent police shootings.
In midtown Manhattan, protesters first gathered in Union Square Park where they chanted “The people united, never be divided!” and “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!”
A group of protesters then left the park and began marching up Fifth Avenue blocking traffic during the height of rush hour as police scrambled to keep up. Another group headed through Herald Square and Times Square where several arrests were reported.
Michael Houston, a 20-year-old Brooklyn student, said anger and lack of action brought him to the protest.
“It’s the definition of insanity,” Houston said. “How can we expect anything to be different when nothing changes.”
Lawrence Amsterdam, 35, another student from Brooklyn, decried what he called the police injustice.
“It’s supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. But the way I see it, it’s murder first and ask questions later,” Amsterdam said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press, Reuters
