Amid disquiet about the potential legal implications of the killing, the department also gave the first public details of the model of robot and type of explosive device they used against Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old army reserve veteran.
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‘He seemed very much in control and very determined to hurt other officers, ‘ Dallas police chief David Brown told CNN.
The suspect had enough explosives to do damage “throughout the north Texas area” – and left a final message written in his own blood mysteriously saying “RB”.
“We’re convinced this suspect had other plans and thought that what he was doing was right”, Brown said Sunday in an interview on CNN.
Obama noted that Dallas police on Thursday had to protect themselves and citizens from sniper fire while deciphering who had guns among those taking part in a protest decrying police shootings of black men.
Two deaths during the week of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana have led to nationwide protests against the killing of black men by the white-dominated police. “That’s the spirit that I want to build on”, he said during a press conference in Poland.
Lynch said protesters concerned about killings by police should not be discouraged “by those who use your lawful actions as a cover for their heinous violence”.
The Dallas police chief also sought to explain initial confusion that resulted in the arrests of three “suspects” who turned out not to be involved in the shooting.
Johnson taunted the authorities during two hours of negotiations, laughing at them, singing and at one point asking how many officers he had shot.
Aside from the “combat” journal, authorities also discovered bomb making materials, rifles, and ballistic vests at the residence of the shooter, when it was searched on Friday.
“I approved it”, Brown said.
Johnson was believed to have shared a two-story tan brick home in Mesquite, about 30 minutes east of Dallas, with family members.
The threats came just two days after five officers were shot to death by a sniper during a Black Lives Matter protest. Around 50 people were arrested in St. Paul, and officials say 21 police officers were injured.
Police said on Twitter that “out of an abundance of caution, officers searched the garage to ensure reports of a suspicious person (were) thoroughly investigated”.
The private self-defence school teaches special tactics, including “shooting on the move”, in which an attacker fires and changes position before firing again. Toward the end of his tenure, Johnson was deployed to Afghanistan from November 2013 and returned in July 2014.
But elsewhere, fresh protests were planned against police brutality in at least half a dozen cities on Saturday. “…The common sense would tell you you don’t know where the gunfire is coming from, there were individuals that ran across the gunfire…so it sure took our eye off the ball for a moment”.
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Police kept a number of streets around El Centro College, where Johnson had holed up, stretched with yellow crime scene tape over the weekend.
