It came just two days after five white police officers were shot dead in the city, apparently by black former army veteran Micah Johnson, during a protest rally on Thursday against the killing of black men by police.
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In 2015, Johnson was almost given an “other than honorable discharge” from the military while stationed in Afghanistan after a female solider reported him for sexual harassment, Bradford Glendening, the military lawyer who represented Johnson, told the Associated Press.
Theresa Williams said one of the wounded civilians was her sister, 37-year-old Shetamia Taylor, who was shot in the right calf.
Describing Dallas shooting suspect Micah Xavier Johnson as a “demented individual”, Obama said he “is no more representative of African Americans than the shooter in Charleston was representative of white Americans, or the shooter in Orlando or San Bernardino were representative of Muslim Americans”.
Bomb-making materials, weapons and ammunition were found in Johnson’s home.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown says the attack was “well planned”.
Video posted on social media appeared to show a gunman at ground level exchanging fire with a police officer who was then felled.
Police say officers have been targeted in Tennessee, Georgia and Missouri in the aftermath of two high-profile killings of black men by law enforcement.
The shootings – which left nine wounded, seven of them police officers – sparked chaos as people ran for their lives during a march by several hundred demonstrators in the city of 1.2 million, near the site where president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
Authorities initially blamed multiple “snipers” for Thursday’s attack, and at one point said three suspects were in custody.
An officer in a St Louis suburb is fighting for his life after being shot in the neck during a traffic stop on Friday morning.
Dallas police stand watch near the scene where four Dallas police officers were shot and killed on July 7, 2016 in Dallas, Texas. “Anger was brought in to this state and this officers were taken advantage of”, said Tony Esposito.
The attack took place during a peaceful demonstration against police brutality, including the recent fatal shootings by police of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. “And their lives are not at risk”, the chief said.
“We must step up our game and approach complicated issues in a different way”, Rawlings said. “And over the years increasingly we’ve had much more diversity in policing, Muslim officers, increasing numbers of African American officers, Latino officers”.
According to the Dallas police, a suspect engaged in a shootout on the second floor of a parking garage told police “the end is near” and that more officers would be killed as there were bombs planted throughout downtown Dallas.
The Southern Poverty Law Center labels organizations as hate groups for beliefs or practices that the SPLC says “attack or malign an entire class of people” regardless of whether the group advocates for or engages in violence or other criminal activity.
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“What I would say is I have great confidence in the American people, their goodness”, the president said. “The key thing is to keep our police out of harm’s way, and this was able to do that and accomplish the tactical objectives we had”. The Dallas Transit agency cited “police activity”.
