Now authorities are investigating whether the Dallas gunman was directed by those groups or merely emboldened by them.
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People on Monday took to the streets again in fresh protests over police shootings of black Americans, with hundreds of protesters blocking streets in America’s third largest city Chicago.
“He was very disappointed, very disappointed”.
The sniper, Micah X Johnson (25) a black veteran of the war in Afghanistan, took advantage of a spontaneous march that broke out during Thursday night’s protest.
A picture has emerged of Johnson as an angry young man with a warped interpretation of the tactics of empowerment for the black community. According to his family, he became interested in his black heritage after leaving the military, but never showed animosity toward people of other races. His stepmother Donna is white.
Police say they believe Micah Johnson practiced detonating explosives.
Brown said Johnson’s writings suggest that he had plans for violence that went beyond Dallas.
Mr Brown also vigorously defended his decision to use a bomb mounted on a robot to kill the gunman while he was holed up after killing the five officers.
“I don’t give much quarter to those who ask these type of questions from comfort and safety away from the incident”, Brown told CNN.
Pinkston asked fellow officers to serve in the memory of their lost colleagues while Dallas Police Chief David Brown hailed the police officers as superheroes.
His father, James Johnson said haltingly and through tears: “I don’t know what to say to anybody to make anything better”.
The chief said that “based on evidence of bomb-making materials and a journal” found in Johnson’s Mesquite, Texas, home, “we’re convinced that this suspect had other plans”, for what may have been a larger attack.
Two of the three detainees were subsequently released, including a woman who was running with people who were armed, Brown said. “We don’t think he learned that in the military”.
Johnson opened fire on officers before hiding in the second floor of a parking garage, sparking an hours-long standoff in which he exchanged gunfire with officers and claimed he had planted bombs around downtown Dallas. About 100 people were arrested in Baton Rouge, including nationally known activist DeRay McKesson.
Similar questions have been raised by global terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State group: How is the network encouraging and directing attacks?
Dallas Police have given the all-clear after an anonymous threat against officers prompted a search of a nearby building.
Officers stood in a line, as others assembled in a circle around a police vehicle covered with balloons and flowers.
A candlelight vigil is set for 8 p.m. on Monday in Dallas City Hall plaza.
At a memorial service Tuesday in Dallas for the fallen men in blue, President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush echoed the sentiments of all thoughtful Americans when they talked about the need for the nation to come together during these trying times.
Dr. Alex Eastman, the director of the hospital’s trauma center who also is a deputy medical director with the city’s police department, said the shootings “rocked some guys to their core that I thought were unshakable”.
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Carlyle Holder, president of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, had been holding up the Dallas Police Department as an example of a law enforcement agency effectively addressing the problem of racial disparities in police work.
