His six years in the Army Reserve, including a tour in Afghanistan, were “not what Micah thought it would be … what he thought the military represented, it just didn’t live up to his expectations”. While there, the officer spoke to Johnson, who said he “had just gotten out of a class at a nearby self-defence school”.
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Everman suggested that Johnson “let me know when you make it down this way”. “Well, ask the policymakers to do something and I’ll give you an opinion”.
Police in the US city of Dallas, Texas, stepped up security Saturday after a new threat was received, two days after snipers killed five police officers during a mass protest in the city.
The chief defended the decision to kill Johnson with a bomb delivered by remote-controlled robot, saying negotiations went nowhere and officers could not approach him without putting themselves in danger. Brown did not provide more details, including the locations of the negotiations that came before the bomb. Sterling and Mr. Castile were killed at the hands of white police officers, Chief Brown said Sunday. “When there’s no other way, I think this is a good example”, he said. “I’d do it again … to save our officers’ lives”.
Johnson, 25, had amassed a personal arsenal at his home in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, including bomb-making materials, rifles, ammunition and a journal of combat tactics, authorities said Friday.
He also added: “It has to stop”. He presided over the funeral of another black man who was shot by a white officer earlier this year, and was part of a dialogue with police that followed and brought him a sense of healing.
The scare came as another night of marches against police brutality got underway in several cities across the United States, a groundswell of protest that shows little sign of abating.
“We are sitting on a powder keg”, said former Philadelphia Police Chief Charles Ramsey, who also headed President Obama’s task force on 21st century policing.
Federal agents are trying to trace the origin of the weapons used by Johnson, including a semi-automatic rifle.
About 30 agents are also involved in identifying bullet casings, said William Temple, the Dallas agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Johnson’s time in the Army was marked by a sexual harassment accusation in May 2014 while in Afghanistan. That recommendation was “highly unusual”, Bradford said, since counselling is usually ordered before more drastic steps are taken.
“In his case, it was apparently so egregious, it was not just the act itself”, Glendening said.
According to a court filing, the victim said she wanted Johnson to “receive mental help”, and sought a protective order to keep him away from her and her family. Sharon Carter, who works in the district’s registrar’s office and lives near Johnson’s home, said she saw him occasionally wearing military fatigues as he left for army reservist training, but never saw him armed. It was unclear whether Johnson ever received counseling.
The shootings just a few blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was slain in 1963 marked the deadliest day for US law enforcement since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The turmoil is the result of two videos showing police fatally shooting black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and subsequent the killing of five police officers in Dallas.
In Chicago, images and footage on social media and news stations showed about 500 protesters marching through downtown after holding a quiet sit-in in Millennium Park that spilled into the streets and a rally near City Hall.
Dallas police have given the all-clear after an hours-long lockdown of police headquarters. Police got them out of the building Friday morning. Authorities said a man called 911 to report a break-in, then ambushed the responding officer. Portraits of the officers were propped up in front of the speaker’s platform.
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Seeking to restore calm, President Barack Obama, scheduled to speak in Dallas at an inter-faith memorial service Tuesday, cautioned protesters against casting all police as racially biased. But when he was researching his 2009 book “Wired for War”, a US soldier told him troops in Iraq sometimes used surveillance robots against insurgents, he added in an email Friday. His wife, Cecilia Abbott, will take his place.
