But his demeanor and attitude changed drastically after his six-year military service, which included seven months in Afghanistan, Johnson’s mother told The Blaze.
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James, 55, said he “loved his son with all his heart” but asserted “I hate what he did”.
The family members said Johnson never showed any outward signs of hatred for white people or any other racial groups.
Sources say some of the weapons Micah Johnson had on him and in his home were purchased legally and some were bought online.
Protests against U.S. police tactics continued for a third straight day on Sunday, with scores arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after authorities warned that violence during street demonstrations over the fatal police shootings of two black men last week would not be tolerated.
He also updated the number of officers who engaged with the suspect to 11 officers who fired on him plus two officers who rigged the explosive device to the robot that eventually blew Johnson up.
“I didn’t see it coming”, he added, heaving with emotion.
“We’re going to turn over every rock” to make certain Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, was the lone gunman who killed five police officers and wounded nine others Thursday in downtown Dallas.
The fact that Johnson had material for explosives and talked of using homemade bombs during the standoff with police indicated he could have inflicted more damage with more time, Jenkins said.
“[Johnson] already killed us in a grave way, and officers were in surgery that didn’t make it”, Brown told reporters.
“This was not an ethical dilemma”. He also “liked” two groups known for race-based extremism: The New Black Panther Party and the African American Defense League.
Enough police officers got killed at Johnson’s hands, and he had been given hours of opportunities to surrender. “I’ll use any tool at my disposal to save an officer’s life”. “I hate what he did”. The death toll stands at five officers, he said.
Dallas police chief David Brown said all of his officers are on edge after the events, and his family has received death threats.
Several dozen demonstrators have gathered outside the Dane County Sheriff’s Department’s headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, to protest recent police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
During Sunday’s interview, Brown gave new details of his department’s confrontation with Johnson, saying that the suspect had engaged in a mocking two-hour conversation after police had pinned him down in a parking garage.
Dallas police announced plans for the first three of the officers’ funerals, which will take place tomorrow and Thursday.
The chief also said that, “based on evidence of bombmaking materials and a journal” found at Johnson’s home in Mesquite, Texas, “we’re convinced that this suspect had other plans”, possibly for a larger attack.
Senior Corporal Lorne Ahrens of the Dallas Police Department and Brent Thompson of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit police will be laid to rest tomorrow.
A shooting in MI on Monday underscored the prevalence of gun violence in America and the danger faced by law enforcement, even as activists protest against the fatal police shootings of two black men last week in Louisiana and Minnesota.
In Minnesota, relatives of Philando Castile are trying to understand why an officer killed the school nutrition services supervisor during a traffic stop.
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The chief praised his officers at the press conference, saying that the crime rate in Dallas has declined for the last few years. Hundreds of people were arrested and dozens of officers were injured. Despite the tension, harsh words and arrests the protest remained peaceful, The Advocate said.
