Yet even immediately after these events, dad James said he “didn’t see it coming”.
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Several media organizations have reported that while Johnson was in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014, a woman soldier in his unit accused him of sexual harassment.
For two hours, police tried to negotiate with Johnson, but Dallas Police Chief David Brown told CNN Sunday that “he basically lied to us, playing games, laughing at us, singing, asking how many did he get and that he wanted to kill some more”.
“This wasn’t an ethical dilemma for me”, he added. “And I’ll do it again if presented with the same circumstances”. It was purchased in 2008 for $151,000 (136,000 euros) and was still functional, Brown said.
Police say Johnson didn’t have any explosives built, but he had plenty of materials to create pipe bombs.
“Without our actions he would have hurt more officers, Brown said”.
Mr Brown suggested angry young black people in the United States join their local police departments and try to become “part of the solution”.
Both parents agreed their son never showed any outward signs of hatred for white people, indeed Johnson’s stepmother, Donna, is white. Officers used an explosive device to kill Johnson, Chief Brown said.
Thursday’s ambush of the officers in Dallas was the deadliest day for US law enforcement since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Federal agents are trying to trace the origin of the weapons used, including a military-style semi-automatic rifle.
“They are very grateful for the police”, Lawrence Jones from TheBlaze said during an interview on MSNBC Tuesday.
Brown also revealed other new details about the night of carnage, and how the city’s streets were turned into a war zone as 11 officers exchanged fire with Johnson as he killed five cops and wounded seven more cops and two civilians. “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?”
At the time of the standoff on Thursday night, Johnson told hostage negotiators that he had been angry about recent fatal shootings of black men by police across the U.S. and wanted to kill white people, especially police officers, Brown confirmed.
Among those injured were two officers from El Centro College, the school said in a statement Sunday night, identifying them as Cpl.
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Police said Johnson had been planning an even bigger attack.
