Nearly immediately, several officers were attacked, including the five slain by a sniper in Dallas.
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“We had negotiated with him for about two hours, and he just basically lied to us – playing games, laughing at us, singing, asking how many (police officers) did he get and that he wanted to kill some more and that there were bombs there”, Brown said, “so there was no progress on the negotiation”.
Since then, threats ranging from generic promises of violence to specific video postings have been made, only heightening fears of further attacks.
Investigators believe “based on evidence of bomb-making materials and a journal that the suspect had been practicing explosive detonations and that the materials were such that it was large enough to have devastating effects throughout our city and our north Texas area”, Brown said.
“If this had not been a crime of opportunity where the protest was quickly organized in response to events in the same week … he could have caused a lot more harm than he did”, Jenkins said.
Police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota were followed by calls from black militant groups and others to seek vengeance against officers.
The gunman wrote the letters “RB” and other markings, but the meaning was unclear.
Brown also lamented that police face unrealistic expectations from society. Scott was wounded by police, arrested and questioned at a hospital, the TBI said. Johnson was deployed for about seven months in Afghanistan, from late 2013, and received an honorable discharge.
Brown added: “This wasn’t an ethical dilemma for me”.
The chief defended the decision to kill Johnson with a bomb delivered by remote-controlled robot, saying negotiations went nowhere and that officers could not approach him without putting themselves in danger.
“I’m an old school cop, until you show me we’ve exhausted every lead, I’m not going to be convinced we know everything”, Chief Brown said.
He was killed by a robot-delivered bomb Thursday after the shootings, which marked the deadliest day for US law enforcement since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Federal agents are trying to trace the origin of the weapons used, including a military-style semi-automatic rifle.
The Dallas police are continuing to dive into the background of the gunman as they also prepare for the first funerals for the officers.
WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that 25 officers stormed out of the headquarters with gun trained on top of a parking garage.
Police in the USA 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.
Video showed protesters marching along a downtown street about half a mile from City Hall when shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover.
Brown also said two El Centro students hid in the building overnight, because they were afraid to come out until the shooting stopped.
El Centro said in a statement posted on its website that Cpl.
On the eve of a memorial service for those slain officers, Chief David Brown turned highly personal at a news briefing, speaking of the toll the violence is taking on his department.
Both men were resting at home.
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Recreating the crime scene, the police chief said officers’ jobs were made hard by the protesters who openly carried AR-15 rifles and other weapons during the protest.
