Dallas sniper's objective: Kill police

In standoff, robot-delivered bomb ends officers’ slayer

A Dallas officer guards an intersection Friday morning after Thursday night’s shooting in the city’s downtown that targeted the police force. More photos are available at arkansasonline.com/galleries.
A Dallas officer guards an intersection Friday morning after Thursday night’s shooting in the city’s downtown that targeted the police force. More photos are available at arkansasonline.com/galleries.

DALLAS -- An Army veteran killed by Dallas police after the sniper slayings of five officers had told authorities that he was upset about the police shootings of two black men earlier this week and wanted to kill white people, "especially white officers," officials said.






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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A map showing the locations of the shootings in downtown Dallas.

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AP

People participate Friday in a United To Heal Prayer Vigil at Cathedral Guadalupe, in honor of the police officers slain Thursday in Dallas. A peaceful protest in Dallas over the recent videotaped shootings of black men by police turned violent Thursday night as gunman Micah Johnson shot at officers, killing five and injuring seven, as well as two civilians.

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AP

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responds to questions about the police shootings during a news conference at City Hall Friday in Dallas. Five police officers are dead and several injured following a shooting during what began as a peaceful protest in the city the night before.

The man, identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, was killed by a robot-delivered explosive after the shootings. In all, 12 officers were shot, and two civilians were wounded.

The officers who were shot were patrolling a peaceful demonstration by thousands of people protesting the fatal shootings earlier in the week of black men by police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana.

After the attack, Johnson tried to take refuge in a̶ p̶a̶r̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶g̶a̶r̶a̶g̶e̶ El Centro College* and engaged in an hourslong standoff with police, Police Chief David Brown said.

The gunman described his motive during negotiations and said he acted alone and was not affiliated with any groups, Brown said.

"He said he was upset about the recent police shootings," Brown said. "The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."

Johnson, who was black, 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.

A military lawyer, Bradford Glendening, said later that Johnson was accused of sexual harassment by a female solider when he served in the Army in Afghanistan in May 2014.

Glendening said Johnson was sent back to the U.S. with the recommendation that he be removed from the Army with an "other than honorable" discharge.

Glendening, who represented Johnson at the time, said Friday that Johnson was set to be removed from the Army in September 2014 because of the accusation. Instead, Johnson got an honorable discharge the next April -- for reasons Glendening said he doesn't understand.

The Dallas Police Department said that during a search of Johnson's home, investigators found "bomb-making materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition, and a personal journal of combat tactics." Authorities said they were still investigating the journal's contents.

Johnson did not appear to have any ties to terrorist groups, officials said, and police in Dallas said he had no criminal history.

The gunfire, starting just before 9 p.m., sent terrified marchers, including families with children, running for cover, while police officers ran the other way, guns drawn and toward the shooting, and returned fire.

After Johnson was cornered on the second floor of a̶ p̶a̶r̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶g̶a̶r̶a̶g̶e̶ El Centro College*, negotiators spent hours trying to get him to surrender, Brown said, but he "told our negotiators that the end is coming and he's going to hurt and kill more of us, meaning law enforcement, and that there are bombs all over the place in this garage and downtown." No such explosives were found.

"The negotiations broke down, and we had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect," the chief said. "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was."

During remarks at a prayer vigil on Friday afternoon, Brown said that "this was a well-planned, well-thought-out evil tragedy by these suspects," adding: "And we won't rest until we bring everyone involved to justice."

sons and husbands

Few details about the slain officers were immediately available, and law enforcement officials did not immediately disclose their racial makeup.

Police said four of the dead were Dallas police officers and that one was from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit force. The transit agency identified him as Brent Thompson, 43. He joined in 2009 and was the first officer at the agency to be killed in the line of duty since the agency formed a police force in 1989.

Another of the officers killed was identified by his family, on social media, as Patrick Zamarripa. "Need prayers to get through this," Zamarripa's father, Rick Zamarripa, said in a Facebook post from Parkland Hospital on Friday.

The transit agency said in a statement that Thompson was a newlywed and wife also works for the police force.

"Our hearts are broken," the statement said.

Family members said Zamarripa was a seven-year member of the Dallas force who also had served in the Navy and worked in Iraq as a military policeman.

Authorities in Michigan identified a third officer as Michael Krol, 40. Before moving to Dallas, Krol worked in the Wayne County jail system from 2003 to 2007, said the county sheriff, Benny Napoleon. Two of Krol's relatives declined to be interviewed Friday.

The two other slain officers were identified by The Dallas Morning News as Lorne Ahrens and Michael Smith.

The Dallas transit agency identified three of its officers who were injured but are expected to survive, Omar Cannon, 44; Misty McBride, 32; and Jesus Retana, 39.

Mayor Mike Rawlings said a bullet went through the leg of one of the wounded officers as three members of his squad were fatally shot around him.

"He felt that people don't understand the danger of dealing with a protest," said Rawlings, who spoke to the surviving officer. "And that's what I learned from this. We care so much about people protesting, and I think it's their rights. But how we handle it can do a lot of things. One of the things it can do is put our police officers in harm's way, and we have to be very careful about doing that."

Theresa Williams said one of the two wounded civilians was her sister, Shetamia Taylor, 37, who was shot in the right calf. She threw herself over her four sons, ages 12 to 17, when the shooting began.

"We're hurting, our profession is hurting," said Brown, the Dallas police chief. "There are no words to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city."

At a memorial service in Thanksgiving Square on Friday afternoon, Brown was greeted by the sustained cheers and applause of nearly 500 people. "We need this community to show officers that we appreciate their sacrifice," he said.

That morning, Rawlings had stood beside Brown and called the shootings "a heartbreaking moment." Rawlings added: "To say that our police officers put their lives on the line every day is no hyperbole, ladies and gentlemen. It's a reality."

Protest background

The bloodshed unfolded just a few blocks from Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, in an area of hotels, restaurants, businesses and some residential apartments.

Hundreds of people had gathered to protest the police killings of Alton Sterling, 37, in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile, 32, in suburban St. Paul, Minn.

The protest was planned by Dominique Alexander, an ordained minister and the head of the Next Generation Action Network. He said the organization "does not condone violence against any human being."

Live TV footage showed a chaotic scene, with officers with automatic rifles on the street corners.

Authorities initially blamed multiple "snipers" for Thursday's attack, and at one point they said three suspects were in custody. Brown declined to identify the people who were arrested, or to say if there might have been others involved. The gunman claimed he acted alone, he said, but "we're not satisfied that we've exhausted every lead."

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the attack appeared to be the work of a single gunman.

Rawlings, the mayor, said confusion about multiple gunmen came from the fact that about 20 people in the crowd were carrying rifles and wearing protective equipment. But after conducting interviews, investigators concluded all the shots came from the same attacker. Rawlings added that the gunman also was wearing a protective vest and used an AR-15 rifle.

Authorities have not ruled out completely the involvement of others, said Philip Kingston, a Dallas city councilman who represents the downtown district.

"The shooter's own statement apparently was that he had acted alone," Kingston said around midday Friday.

A Texas law enforcement official had identified the man killed in the parking garage as Johnson. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to release the information.

grief and prayers

President Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked for the public's prayers.

Speaking from Poland, where he was meeting with leaders of the European Union and attending a NATO summit, Obama asked all Americans to pray for the fallen officers and their families.

"Let's be clear: there are no possible justifications for these attacks or any violence towards law enforcement," he told reporters in Warsaw after speaking by phone with Rawlings, Dallas' mayor. "There has been a vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement."

Late Friday, the White House announced Obama would cut his trip short by one day to visit Dallas at the request of city officials. After meetings in Warsaw today, he will head on to Spain, where his will meet with Spanish leaders and visit with U.S. troops. He is to return to the U.S. on Sunday and visit Dallas early next week.

In a letter posted online Friday, Abbott said "every life matters" and urged Texans to come together.

"In the end," he wrote, "evil always fails."

Officials across the country expressed their grief for those killed in Dallas.

In Washington, House Speaker Paul Ryan said anger over the police shootings in Dallas must not be allowed to divide us. "Justice will be done," Ryan, R-Wis., said in a House floor speech.

But his comments were undercut by a Republican congressman from Texas, who suggested Obama bore some responsibility for recent police violence.

"The spread of misinformation and constant instigation by prominent leaders, including our president, have contributed to the modern day hostility we are witnessing," Rep. Roger Williams said in a statement. "As a result, today we are seeing one of the noblest professions condemned by those who could benefit the most."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said he and No. 2 House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland agreed to talk today about assembling a bipartisan response that could be announced next week.

"I think there's an opportunity here where people can work together," McCarthy said.

Flags over the Capitol were lowered to half-staff in response to the shootings, and members of the Texas delegation, led by Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, led a moment of silence on the House floor. The shootings occurred in Johnson's district just blocks from her home, Johnson said.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch called for calm, saying the recent violence can't be allowed to "precipitate a new normal."

Lynch said Friday that federal officials including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were working with law enforcement agencies to help investigate the attack.

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, wrote in a message on Twitter: "I mourn for the officers shot while doing their sacred duty to protect peaceful protesters, for their families [and] all who serve with them."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called the shooting "a coordinated, premeditated assault on the men and women who keep us safe."

Both candidates canceled most political events. Clinton did go forward with a late afternoon appearance at the African Methodist Episcopal Convention in Philadelphia, where she focused on violence from all quarters and declared there is "something wrong with our country."

Trump canceled a speech in Miami. In his statement, Trump called Sterling and Castile's deaths "senseless" and a reminder of how much more needs to be done to ensure Americans feel safe in their communities.

Information for this article was contributed by Terry Wallace, Jamie Stengle, Paul Weber, Emily Schmall, Amy Shafer, Sarah Rankin, Benjamin Dashley, Kathleen Hennessey, Julie Pace, Ken Thomas, Jill Colvin, Erica Werner and staff members of The Associated Press; by Patrick McGee, Manny Fernandez, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Richard Perez-Pena, Michael S. Schmidt, Alan Blinder, Mark Landler and Sewell Chan of The New York Times; by Tim Madigan, William Wan, Mark Berman, Joel Achenbach, Louisa Loveluck, Greg Jaffe, Michael E. Miller, Travis M. Andrews, Adam Goldman, Katie Mettler, Ben Guarino, Mary Hui, Tom Jackman, Peter Hermann, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post.

A Section on 07/09/2016

*CORRECTION: Micah Johnson, 25, the man suspected of killing five police officers and wounding seven others in a shooting Thursday, was killed by police using a remote-controlled robot on the second floor of El Centro College in downtown Dallas, Police Chief David Brown said Monday. Brown acknowledged that the department incorrectly described for several days where Johnson was cornered by police. Because of the faulty information, this story incorrectly described where Johnson was killed.

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