A man has described how a police officer saved his life as shooting erupted at a protest in the USA where four officers were killed. Police later said in a statement that a suspect who was in a shootout with Dallas SWAT officers was is in custody and a person of interest had surrendered.
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Snipers opened fire on police officers during protests; several officers were killed, police said. They are attempting to negotiate with the person and in a press conference police report the suspect said “The end is coming”.
Brown said at an early Friday morning news conference that authorities are negotiating with a suspect in a downtown parking garage who has been exchanging gunfire with officials.
Javier Giribet-Vargas, an intern with Dallas member station KERA, was covering the protests when the shootings happened.
Officers followed two suspects with camouflage bags in a black Mercedes auto and they are in custody and being interviewed. Police said he was not involved.
“Everyone just started running”, Devante Odom, 21, told The Dallas Morning News.
Dallas police chief says it appears two snipers shot 10 police officers during protests, and three of the officers are dead. The police chief vowed to continue the search for any potentially remaining suspects.
State investigators later identified Minneapolis area police officer Jeronimo Yanez as the patrolman who fatally shot Castile during a traffic stop.
“Everyone was screaming, people were running”, she said.
According to the Dallas police scanner, officers were looking for a light-skinned black male armed with AR-15 type rifle.
Brown added that federal law enforcement authorities have been called on to help search the downtown area for any potential explosives.
Dallas police say they are questioning two occupants of a vehicle after an officer saw a person throw a bag into the back of the vehicle and speed off.
The use of force by police against African-Americans in cities from Ferguson, Missouri, to Baltimore and NY has sparked periodic and sometimes violent protests in the past two years and has spawned the Black Lives Matter movement.
During the protest, local news outlets showed video of protesters scattering after gunfire broke out.
“Three officers are deceased, two are in surgery and three are in critical condition”, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said in a statement.
Earlier, CNN reported that there may have been more than two shots fired, with sources saying that they heard as many as 20 gunshots during the protest.
Castile’s death occurred within a day of the shooting of Alton Sterling, 37, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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Video footage from the Dallas scene showed protesters were marching along a street in downtown, about half a mile from City Hall, when the shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover.
