DALLAS
— At least one sniper, who said he wanted to shoot white police
officers, killed five officers and wounded seven others at a
demonstration in Dallas on Thursday night against police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana, officials said. The sniper was killed, and three other people are in custody, officials said.
During
an hourslong standoff after the attack, in which two civilians were
also wounded, the gunman told police negotiators that “he was upset
about Black Lives Matter,” the Dallas police chief, David O. Brown, said on Friday.
“He
said he was upset about the recent police shootings,” Chief Brown said.
“The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he
wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”
The police killed the suspect using an explosive delivered by a robot, he said, and arrested three other people.
It
appears that the dead sniper, identified as Micah X. Johnson, 25, was
the sole gunman, a senior law enforcement official said. Officials at
first said that at least two snipers had carried out a coordinated
ambush, firing rifles from triangulated positions, including from one or
more elevated posts in downtown buildings.
Mr.
Johnson, an Army veteran who lived in the Dallas area, apparently had
no criminal record in Texas. Investigators have not turned up any
evidence that he had ties to the Black Lives Matter movement or to
political groups. The official said that Justice officials have reached
out to the Pentagon to obtain Mr. Johnson’s military records.
0 commentaires: