3 suspects in custody after 5 police shot dead in Dallas
Print Edition
GUNMEN shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven others during a protest in Dallas, Texas, over fatal police shootings of black men in other states, authorities said. It appeared to be the deadliest day for US law enforcement since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Thursday’s bloodshed, which unfolded just a few blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was slain in 1963, also evoked the trauma of the nation’s tumultuous civil rights era.
Police Chief David Brown blamed “snipers” and said three suspects were in custody. Mayor Mike Rawlings said a fourth was slain by police in a downtown parking garage where he had exchanged gunfire with authorities.
“We don’t exactly know the last moments of his death, but explosives did blast him out,” Rawlings told reporters. Police said the man had told negotiators he intended to hurt more law enforcement officials.
Police did not identify any of the suspects. The police chief said the dead suspect had declared before his death that he was upset about recent shootings and wanted to kill whites.
The shooting began about 8:45pm on Thursday while hundreds of people were gathered to protest the week’s fatal police shootings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St Paul, Minnesota. Brown told reporters the snipers fired “ambush style” on the officers. Two civilians were also wounded, Rawlings said.
Brown said it appeared the shooters “planned to injure and kill as many officers as they could.” Video from the scene showed protesters marching along a downtown street about half a mile from City Hall when shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover.
“I think the biggest thing that we’ve had something like this is when JFK died,” resident Jalisa Jackson said early yesterday as she struggled to fathom the still-unsettled situation. Officers crouched beside vehicles, SWAT team armored vehicles arrived and a helicopter hovered overhead.
Demonstations were held in several other US cities on Thursday night to protest the police killings of two more black men: A Minnesota officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile while he was in a car with a woman and a child, the shooting’s aftermath 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.
Kennedy assassination
Thursday’s shootings occurred in area of hotels, restaurants, businesses and some residential apartments only a few blocks from Dealey Plaza, the landmark made famous by the Kennedy assassination.
The scene was chaotic, with 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 told the newspaper that the shooters “were strategic. It was tap, tap, pause. Tap, tap pause,” he said.
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 the attack and were not certain early yesterday that all suspects had been located, Brown said.
Early yesterday morning, dozens of officers filled the corridor of the emergency room at Baylor Medical Center, where wounded officers were taken. The mayor and police chief were seen arriving.
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 reporters that one of the wounded civilians was her sister, 37-year-old Shetamia Taylor.
The identity of the other civilian casualty was not immediately known.
Other protests across the US on Thursday were peaceful. In midtown Manhattan, protesters gathered in Union Square Park. In Minnesota, where Castile was shot, hundreds of protesters marched to the governor’s official residence. Protesters also marched in Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
