The Republican governor issued a statement late Thursday night after the Dallas police chief said it appears two snipers shot 10 police officers during protests, and three of the officers are dead. The agency said in a statement that 43-year-old officer Brent Thompson, a newlywed whose bride also works for the police force, was the first officer killed in the line of duty since the agency formed a police department in 1989. Police and others hunched behind cars outside a parking garage. Video from the scene showed a heavy police presence and officers taking cover behind vehicles on the street after the shooting.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, a Minnesota officer fatally shot Philando Castile while he was in a vehicle with a woman and a child in a St Paul suburb.
The Dallas shootings occurred in an area of hotels, restaurants, businesses and some residential apartments only a few blocks from Dealey Plaza, the landmark made famous by the Kennedy assassination. Dallas Police Sr. Corporal Debra Webb said in the statement that police were sorting through information at what was “clearly still an active scene”.
Theresa Williams told The Associated Press that the injured civilian was her sister, 37-year-old Shetamia Taylor. TV cameras also showed officers carrying shield going into a bank building. Peete said she saw a woman trip and almost get trampled as people ran to get to safety. “We lost touch with two of our friends just trying to get out of there”. It was tap, tap, pause.
This was the third night in a row of protests here in the city over police-involved shootings.
The protesters on Thursday chanted “The people united, never be divided” and “Hands up don’t shoot”.
The protesters crowded Manhattan’s Union Square and marched up Fifth Avenue to Times Square, blocking rush-hour traffic amid honks from obstructed cars. “This is ridiculous, this is an injustice, this is an institutional problem, we need to change the institution, we need to change, the laws, we need to change the legislator and we need more people to do so”, added another person. That rally later gained movement and headed to Times Square where it grew. “It’s the definition of insanity”, Houston said.
Advertisement
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. “But the way I see it, it’s murder first and ask questions later”, Amsterdam said.
