Dallas police chief David Brown said four snipers armed with rifles were involved in the shootings.
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Thompson is the first DART officer to be killed in the line of duty. He joined the force in 2009.
Shots were reported fired in downtown Dallas on Thursday night during a protest over shootings by police of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, CNN affiliate KTVT said.
Police are now investigating a parking garage near Commerce and Austin Streets in downtown Dallas as bystanders shelter in place, according to KTVT. A suspicious parcel was discovered near the suspect’s location and is being secured by the DPD bomb squad.
Video footage from the scene showed that 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.
Protests were also held in several other cities across the country after a Minnesota officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile while he was in a auto with a woman and a child. Police and others hunched behind cars outside a parking garage. Three of the injured officers reportedly were in critical condition and two others were in surgery.
Two police officers have been shot at a protest in Dallas, following two recent police shootings in the USA.
Heated protests have erupted in Dallas, Texas in retaliation to the fatal shooting of two black men by U.S. cops this week.
Charlie Beck, the police chief of the LAPD, also took to Twitter, stating: “Blue lives matter, they are willingly given and senselessly taken”.
“This suspect we are negotiating with for the last 45 minutes has been exchanging with us and has not been very cooperative with the negotiations”, Brown said.
Beyoncé, one of the most famous American pop stars, posted a message on her website, saying “It is up to us to take a stand and demand that they ‘stop killing us.'” The singer provided a link for fans to contact their congressmen.
Police say four police officers were killed and seven injured in the shootings. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive to the Texas Department of Public Safety director, offering “whatever assistance the City of Dallas needs at this time”. “Some officers were shot in the back”, Brown added during a press conference, and he told reporters that they believed a bomb may have been hidden somewhere downtown. He told television station KTVT that once the shootings had started, his brother had turned the gun over to a police officer.
– Two of the shooters were snipers, who fired “ambush-style” from an “elevated position”, he said. There’s no conversation. If there is a conversation, it’s a one-way conversation where the African-American male is being yelled at, pretty much, ‘Sit down and be quiet or you’re going to get shot, ‘ ” Smith said.
“Instead of getting photos, I ended up getting shot at”, he said.
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Hundreds of people had gathered for a rally and protest march about two blocks from Dealey Plaza when the shots rang out.
