War zone: downtown Dallas shattered by sniper attacks, gunman killed by ‘bomb robot’
Police identify a shooter involved in the attacks as 25-year-old Texas resident Micah Johnson, who lived in the city’s suburb of Mesquite
At least one sniper in Dallas killed five police officers and wounded seven more in a coordinated attack that ended when police blew up a gunman who told them he wanted to “kill white people”, authorities said.
The attack came as a protest against the killing of two black men by police this week was ending, sending marchers screaming and running in panic through the streets.
Police described the ambush in Dallas as carefully planned and executed and said they had taken three people into custody before killing a fourth after a long standoff in a downtown car park.
“We had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect. We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the subject was,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said at a news conference on Friday morning. “Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger.”
Police departments increasingly have used robots dedicated to help disarm bombs, but this appears to be the first time a similar bot has been used to deliver an offensive explosive in a domestic policing action.
“[The suspect] said he was upset about the recent police shootings ... The suspect stated that he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers,” said Brown.