“He thought what he was doing was righteous and believed he was going to make us pay for what he saw as law enforcement’s efforts to punish people of colour”.
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The gunman who killed five police officers in Dallas was “changed” by his experience in the USA military, his mother has said.
More than 1,000 people attended a candlelight vigil Monday night in downtown Dallas to honor the five police officers killed by a sniper during a peaceful march.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown clarified Monday where Johnson was killed with a bomb delivered by a remote-controlled robot, saying that it happened on the second floor of El Centro College, not a parking garage as authorities previously described.
Thousands of people across the U.S. have taken to the streets in recent days to protest against the police killing of black men.
Johnson, an army veteran who served in Afghanistan, took advantage of a spontaneous march that began toward the end of the protest over those killings. “I didn’t see it coming”, said Mr Johnson, struggling to deal with his emotions as he spoke. “We’re convinced that this suspect had other plans”, he said.
On Friday, police searched the home of police shooter Micah Johnson, gleaning details about the man who targeted them in a rampage Thursday night.
Items they’ve recovered include a journal containing combat tactics and an arsenal two years in the making, including guns and bomb-making materials – enough, police say, to cause devastating effects to Dallas and the surrounding area.
The chief also said that authorities are downloading more than 170 hours of officers’ body camera footage and collecting “countless hours” of dashcam video.
In what is believed to be the first instance of its kind on USA soil, police “improvised” the modified use of the robot to deliver a one pound brick of the plastic explosive C-4.
Police do not know what the letters mean but believe Johnson wrote them in his own blood.
Everman suggested that Johnson “let me know when you make it down this way”.
“They were in a funnel”, the chief said of his officers.
Police Chief added that Johnson made fun of the police members and expressed his desire to kill white people as a revenge for the black people killed by the police.
A person who said he was in charge of the organization told AP that Johnson received instruction at the Academy of Combative Warrior Arts in the Dallas suburb of Richardson about two years ago.
Before Johnson was killed by a bomb-equipped robot, he had sang, laughed and taunted officers, and said he wanted to “kill white people” in retribution for police killings of African-Americans, Brown said.
Dallas police officers take cover after shots were fired during a protest of nationwide officer-involved shootings, July 8, 2016.
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“While I think that it’s disturbing and gives us pause, I think the real question we have to think about here is: What does this look like the next time a police department wants to do this?”
