Police: 5 officers dead, 6 hurt in Dallas protest shooting
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS VIA AP
Bystanders run for cover after shots fired at a Black Live Matter rally in downtown Dallas today. 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.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS VIA AP
A Dallas Area Rapid Transit police officer receives comfort at the Baylor University Hospital emergency room entrance tonight in Dallas. Police say one rapid-transit officer has been killed and three injured when gunfire erupted during a protest in downtown Dallas over recent fatal shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS VIA AP
Dallas Police shield bystanders during a Black Live Matter rally in downtown Dallas today. Multiple media outlets report that shots were fired Thursday night during a Dallas protest over two recent fatal police shootings of black men.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police and others gather at the emergency entrance to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, where several police officers were taken after shootings tonight.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man raises his hands as he walks near a law enforcement officer, following the shootings Thursday of several police officers in downtown Dallas, early Friday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Dallas police officer covers his face as he stands with others outside the emergency room at Baylor University Medical Center early Friday.
UPDATE 2:42 A.M. HST
Dallas police chief: Suspect said he was upset about recent shootings, wanted to kill whites.
UPDATE 1:48 A.M. HST
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings says the suspect involved in an overnight standoff with police died after officers used explosives to “blast him out.”
Rawlings said Friday that he was not sure how the suspect died or what weapons were found on him.
He says police have swept the area where the standoff took place and found no explosives.
Snipers opened fire on police officers in the heart of Dallas Thursday evening, killing five officers and injuring six others during protests over two recent fatal police shootings of black men.
UPDATE 11:20 P.M. HST
A memorial group says the slaying of five police officers in Dallas in an attack blamed on snipers was the deadliest day in U.S. law enforcement history since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Four Dallas police officers and one Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer were fatally shot Thursday night. The gunfire happened during protests over this week’s fatal police shootings of two black men, in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Six other officers were wounded in the Dallas attacks.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which monitors the deaths of officers, reports 72 officers were killed as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. The group labels that attack as the deadliest day in U.S. law enforcement history.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
DALLAS » Snipers opened fire on police officers in the heart of Dallas, killing five officers and injuring six others during protests over two recent fatal police shootings of black men, police said, in a week that bore dark echoes of the tumultuous civil rights era.
Three people are in custody and a fourth suspect was exchanging gunfire with authorities in a parking garage downtown, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said early Friday morning.
The suspect is not cooperating and has told negotiators he intends to hurt more law enforcement officials, the chief said.
The gunfire broke out around 8:45 p.m. Thursday while hundreds of people were gathered to protest fatal police shootings this week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. Brown told reporters the snipers fired “ambush style” upon the officers. Mayor Mike Rawlings said one member of the public was wounded in the gunfire.
Protests were also held in several other cities across the country Thursday night after a Minnesota officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile while he was in a car with a woman and a child. The aftermath of the shooting was 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.
Video footage from the Dallas scene showed protesters were marching along a street in downtown, about half a mile from City Hall, when the shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover.
Brown said that it appeared the shooters “planned to injure and kill as many officers as they could.”
President Barack Obama said America is “horrified” over the shootings and there’s no possible justification for the attacks.
Speaking from Warsaw, Poland, where he’s meeting with leaders of the European Union and attending a NATO summit, the president said justice will be done and he’s asking all Americans to pray for the fallen officers and their families. He also said the nation should express its gratitude to those serving in law enforcement.
The search for the shooters stretched throughout downtown, an area of hotels, restaurants, businesses and some residential apartments. The area is only a few blocks away from Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Some of the injured officers were taken to Parkland Hospital.
The scene was chaotic, with helicopters hovering overhead and officers with automatic rifles on the street corners.
“Everyone just started running,” Devante Odom, 21, told The Dallas Morning News. “We lost touch with two of our friends just trying to get out of there.”
Carlos Harris, who lives downtown, told the newspaper that the shooters “were strategic. It was tap, tap pause. Tap, tap pause,” he said.
One woman was taken into custody in the same parking garage where the standoff was ongoing, Brown said. Two others were taken into custody during a traffic stop.
Brown said police don’t have a motivation for the attacks or any information on the suspects. He said they “triangulated” in the downtown area where the protesters were marching and had “some knowledge of the route” they would take.
Video posted on social media appeared to show a gunman at ground level exchanging fire with a police officer who was then felled.
Authorities have not determined whether any protesters were involved with or were complicit in the attack and were not certain early Friday that all suspects have been located, Brown said.
Rawlings said at the news conference that authorities will likely ask some people to stay away from downtown Dallas on Friday.
“This is still an active crime scene. We’re determining how big that crime scene is,” the mayor said.
A map will be posted online showing an area where people should avoid on Friday, he said.
Early Friday morning, there were dozens of officers of the corridor of the ER at Baylor Medical Center, where other injured officers were taken. The mayor and police chief were seen arriving there.
Four of the officers who were killed were with the Dallas Police Department, a spokesman said. One was a Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer. The agency said in a statement that 43-year-old officer Brent Thompson was the first officer killed in the line of duty since the agency formed a police department in 1989.
“Our hearts are broken,” the statement said.
Theresa Williams told The Associated Press that the injured civilian was her sister, 37-year-old Shetamia Taylor.
Williams said her sister was at the protests Thursday night with her four sons, ages 12 to 17.
When the shooting began, Taylor threw herself over her sons, Williams said. She was undergoing surgery early Friday after being shot in the right calf.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement saying he has directed the Texas Department of Public Safety director to offer “whatever assistance the City of Dallas needs at this time.”
“In times like this we must remember — and emphasize — the importance of uniting as Americans,” Abbott said.
Other protests across the U.S. on Thursday were peaceful. 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!” In Minnesota, where Castile was shot, hundreds of protesters marched in the rain from a vigil to the governor’s official residence. Protesters also marched in Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia.
51 responses to “Police: 5 officers dead, 6 hurt in Dallas protest shooting”
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Where was the POTUS on 9/11/2012 and 7/7/2016?
May God be with America. We are in deep trouble in this country.
I agree.
It’s the donald.
NanakuliBoss…any of your family told you it’s time to ST-U/G/Y yet?
correction ….ST_U/G_Y
President Pinocchio owns this!!!
The crime rate and non-complying with the rules-rate of Blacks is the root of the problem. It makes cops hate them and shot them out of nervous fear for themselves.
“Corruption”, your schoolyard taunts are really not helpful. I think you would get across whatever points you are trying to make by leaving them out.
SO sad and so true 🙁
Blue lives matter.
ALL lives matter.
Let’s get guns banned!
Yes. Perhaps ban ammunition sales first. In 20 years, people may have guns but no bullets.
barak huINSANE obama…the most racist, divisive, done-nothing-for 8-years worst potus in American history.
Texas,a State where you can actually carry a firearm in a protest March.
And your point is?
Perhaps it’s a commentary on gun rights advocates saying shootings don’t happen in areas where people are allowed to arm themselves. Horrible events. Acts of terrorism, as far as I’m concerned.
He cleaned up the Bush2/Cheney mess by bringing the economy back, getting Bin Laden that Bush 2 gave up on and got us a healthcare program that many previous Presidents failed to get. Keonigohan I think you listen Flush Limbaugh to much.
Dems owned both sides in Congress for the last 2 years of Bush admin. Barney Frank/Chris Dodd screwed up the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae housing which was a major factor in the crash. Bush never gave up, O was in the right place/time when the SEAL TEAM 6 got OBL w/the assist of the Intelligence Depts. Obamacare was passed due to O’s LIES… “If you like your Dr you can keep your Dr, if you like your health plan you can keep your health plan, every family will save $2500 a year.” You are afflicted with Gruberism.
Sandys, listening to Brian Williams & Catie Couric will make you look like an uninformed
________.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t respond on your assertion on O bringing the economy back..
April 2016 it was reported…”Barack Obama will be lucky to average a 1.55% GDP growth rate.
This ranks Obama as the fourth worst presidency on record.
Barack Obama will be the only U.S. president in history who did not deliver a single year of 3.0%+ economic growth.
>>>the most racist, divisive, done-nothing-for 8-years
Excuse me, but it was the right-wing Republicans in Congress who blocked everything Obama has tried to do. Remember, their goal was to make Obama a one-term president. They are the ones who have tried to divide this country. Obama came into office willing to compromise, but the staunch Republicans would have nothing of it. To them or was “our way or the highway”.
Obama bypassed Congress by using executive orders many times
Police today are trigger happy and some who are veterans of our wars in Iraq and Afganistan may be reverting to the kinds of methods they used there.
Shoot first and ask questions later. These former military guys need to be screened much more intensely. A lot of things our military or intelligence services do overseas
have a tendency to bled back into practices and tactics here.
Especially when you consider the high number of deployments many of these guys had and it may not have been uncommon for indiscriminate killing of civilians to occur on a regular
if not daily basis
It would have been very easy to cover up such killings in a war zone where the enemy was hard to discriminate from the innocent and where the local population was
hostile to you. Not hard for these guys now as cops seeing certain segments of our population as being hostile and the enemy.
Yes, FBI shooting in Miami, 1986, both robbers were former paratroopers, out gunned FBI, continued to fight even with fatal injuries.
ok, we have video of what happened.. let the system decide whether or not the shootings were illegal. if the cops are guilty, punish them …but The current administration loves to stir things up, putting lives in danger for political gain.
With 4% unemployment they should be working. Something doesn’t add up.
Who’s they?
The protestors.
4% unemployment is made up statistical bull. People just gave up looking for jobs and the Millennials are just living off their parents at home. However your comment has nothing to do with this.
WTF are you smoking? PS Texas is a very red(Repub. state) Pres Obama haters seem to be scrapping the bottom of the barrel to blame Obama for this.
LOL! The guy in the green shorts. Just another walk down the street.
White Supremacist groups / Racists are praying Trump wins … if he does this is just the start of things to come … wouldn’t surprise me if Trump, if elected, were to give Presidential Pardons to these cops …
Wrong answer. You don’t tell the cop you are carrying on a traffic stop.
Les, dude had a licenses to carry. He was just the wrong color.
Don’t go there. He had his girlfriend and her daughter in the car. Keep your hands where I can see them. He goes for his license. The cop can’t see his hands.
Right. So in order to make sure that you keep your civil rights intact, just lie to the police. That’s the right answer?
@ Tiger – With hands in plain sight, he should have told the officer that he has a license to carry first. Then tell him where the gun is. According to the girl, seems like when he was reaching for something, he mentioned being armed then the girl said that she yelled or screamed he has a license to carry though.
“A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee,” the former president Bill Clinton told the liberal lion Ted Kennedy. That remark probably sank HRC potus bid against O. So who’s a racist?
May God bless the four officers and their families and Godspeed to the seven on a speedy recovery.
With you on that.
Still ongoing…1:14am CT
The most appropriate comment thus far for this article.
Obummer helped set the stage constantly telling everyone how bad cops are,
Not a Trump advocate but it’s understandable why many people are for him! This headline speaks volumes!
You don’t get it … Trump is a RACIST … it’ll get worse w/ him in office … Brian France CEO of NASCAR, a REDNECK “SPORT” HAS ENDORSED Trump … David Duke the former GRAND WIZARD OF THE KKK HAS ENDORSED Trump … why do you think this happened … it’s the wrong way to protest but people / minorities are fed up w/ WHITES using their power/force to “murder” them in what they feel is a legal way … if Trump gets elected 1861-1865 could happen again …
Read my post again! It does not indicate any ignorance of the situations or of Trump !
That’s great. Trump is this and that, yet you’re the one threatening civil war. What an idi ot.
Obama is a racist too.
>>>officers used explosives to “blast him out.”
So, they blew him up? Wow.
New day, new war, old combat tactic,….they did it in WACO, put device on barrel of an armored vehicle. War in Iraq and Afghanistan improved the use of robots as delivery system. Pretty interesting how one guy killed 5 cops, shut down major city center. Just taught the jihad’s how to do it. The trigger, color divide, black, white, blue, brown…..
Prayers to the families – aloha to Dallas.