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Five dead, six injured in Dallas shooting as city descends into chaos

PRESIDENT Obama has vowed “justice will be done” over the Dallas shooting that has left five police officers dead and six injured as well as a civilian.
Summary:
  • 5 police dead, 6 police, one civilian injured at protest
  • Police suspect snipers in targeted attack
  • One suspect dead, three in custody including woman
  • Police combing city for explosives
  • Obama condemns “twisted motivations” of shooters
  • Two male victims, one female named so far
  • Follows two police shooting of black men in US

Speaking from the start of a NATO summit in Europe he said there had been a “vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement. and those involved will be held fully accountable.”

“I believe I speak for every single American when I say that we are horrified and we stand united with the people and the police department in Dallas,” he said.

It comes after reports a gunman in the horrific shooting killed himself after an hour-long standoff with police.

Three other suspects are in custody including a woman who was arrested in garage and two others travelling in a Mercedes.

Dallas Police said two snipers shot police from elevated positions during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city over the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling earlier this week.

Police are sweeping downtown Dallas for explosives which is expected to take “quite a while” according to Dallas Police Departments Major Max Geron. None have been found so far.

Hundreds of officers have been deployed after one of the suspects told them “the end is coming.”

Eyewitnesses described the aftermath as “like a war zone” that showed people running for their lives.
 

Graphic footage from the scene appears to show a man exchanging gun fire with police and witnesses report hearing a loud bang from the garage that police had earlier surrounded after 11 officers were shot by suspected snipers.

Amateur video appears to show Dallas gunman


‘SOUNDED LIKE SHATTERING GLASS’

The brutal standoff between police and a gunman has been captured on film by witnesses and shows horrific vision of police sheltering behind cars and being slain in the middle of a city street.

Dallas Morning News reporter tweeted that there was a “loud boom and what sounded like shattering glass” shortly after police told reporters to move.

Another reporter described the boom as a “flash bang”, a type of stun grenade used to confuse someone’s senses.

Dallas Police Department Chief David Brown said in a press conference that two snipers shot at “police officers from elevated positions during the protest/rally.”

A civilian, Shetamia Taylor, 37, was also wounded while reportedly shielding her sons aged 12 and 17, when she was shot.

Sister Theresa Williams said that when the shooting began, Taylor threw herself over her sons. She was undergoing surgery early Friday after being shot in the right calf.

Shetamia Taylor was shot while trying to protest her children. Picture: Facebook
Shetamia Taylor was shot while trying to protest her children. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook

 

The protest was in response to recent shootings of two black men at police hands, Alton Sterling in Lousiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Picture: Ron Jenkins/Getty Images/AFP
The protest was in response to recent shootings of two black men at police hands, Alton Sterling in Lousiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Picture: Ron Jenkins/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP

Brown said police negotiated with the suspect but he “has not been very cooperative in negotiations.”

“The suspect ... has exchanged gunfire with us over the last 45 minutes (and) has told our negotiators that the end is coming, and he’s going to hurt and kill more of us.”

He said the suspect had warned there were “bombs all over the place in this garage and in downtown.

“So we are being very careful in our tactics so that we don’t injure or put any of our officers in harm’s way, including the citizens of Dallas, as we negotiate further.”

Earlier police said a suspicious package had been discovered and was being secured by the bomb squad.

Brown confirmed the police had arrested three other suspects but said they didn’t have a “complete comfort level that we have all the suspects”.

“So we will continue a very, very rigorous investigation and search of downtown.”

“We are likely to be working throughout the early morning hours of Friday until we are satisfied that all suspects have been captured and have an opportunity to be interviewed so that we can fully understand what’s motivated this attack on our officers.”

Brown confirmed the police had a woman in custody who had been in the same area of the garage.

“We followed a Mercedes with two suspects who had camouflage bags who officers ended up stopping on traffic,” he said. “They are in custody and being interviewed.”

Dallas police respond after shots were fired during the protest in what Obama called a “despicable” attack. Picture: Maria R. Olivas/The Dallas Morning News via AP.
Dallas police respond after shots were fired during the protest in what Obama called a “despicable” attack. Picture: Maria R. Olivas/The Dallas Morning News via AP.Source:AP

 

US President Barack Obama has had to face the media at least 20 times over shootings in the US. Picture: AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN.
US President Barack Obama has had to face the media at least 20 times over shootings in the US. Picture: AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN.Source:AFP
Three suspects are in custody after the event. Picture: AFP/Laura Buckman
Three suspects are in custody after the event. Picture: AFP/Laura BuckmanSource:AFP

OFFICERS IDENTIFIED AS TRIBUTES POUR IN

It’s the deadliest day US police have seen since 9/11 when 72 law enforcement officers died. The officers killed in the line of duty include Brent Thompson, 43, and Patrick Zamarripa.

Mr Thompson was a Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer who is the first to be killed doing the job.

Mr Zamarripa’s father confirmed the news his son was dead and said: “I’m still at the hospital here in Parkland Hospital to see him be moved to the medical examiner’s office — need prayers to get through this.”

His stepbrother Dylan Martinez tweeted a picture of him, saying “Everyone say a prayer for my stepbrother Patrick, and his family. He was one of the young Dallas police officers killed this evening.”

One of the officers who survived was transit officer Misty McBride. Her father said she had been wounded in the shoulder and abdomen.

 

Tributes to the slain and injured officers have flooded social media under the hastag #DallasStrong.

An image of Dallas police officers saluting their dead colleagues outside the city’s hospital has also made headlines around the world.

ARRESTED MAN RECEIVES DEATH THREATS

One of the men identified as a suspect after the shooting said he has received death threats after being cleared by police.

Mark Hughes was identified as a suspect by Dallas Police Department but later released without charges.

“Y’all have my faces on national news, are y’all gonna come out and say that this young man had nothing to do with it?” told local media after his brother came out and said he had “nothing to do with it”.

“We’ve been getting death threats ... It was persecution on me, uprightly,” he said.

Mark Hughes’ brother Cory told CBS his brother wasn’t involved, and gave police the gun he was carrying, which he was allowed to under the Second Amendment.

He went home after the gun was handed over, Mr Hughes claimed.

“That’s my little brother. That’s not the suspect,” Mr Hughes said. “He just walked away.”

Dallas Police said the man in the photo later surrendered to officers, and gave no other details.

PANIC AT BLACK LIVES MATTER RALLY

The shooting took place in downtown Dallas just before the end of the rally, at about 8.45pm.

The state of Texas introduced a new law in January this year allowing people to openly carry handguns.

The law allows licensed Texans to carry a holstered pistol in public for the first time since 1871. The open carry law passed in the Republican-dominated 2015 legislative session.

According to the New York Post, broadcaster KABC reported that shots were fired during demonstrations at Belo Garden Park in Dallas. Footage showed a heavy police presence with officers taking cover behind vehicles on the street.

Fox News reports protestors were chanting “F**k the police” before the shooting.
 

A protester's video of the protest when the shooting began. #Dallas pic.twitter.com/vpTSS7Sp6z

— Eclipse_RyZe (@Eclipse_RyZe) July 8, 2016

 

Dallas Police shield bystanders after shots were fired Thursday. Picture: Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News via AP
Dallas Police shield bystanders after shots were fired Thursday. Picture: Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News via APSource:AP

 

The location of the shooting, in downtown Dallas.
The location of the shooting, in downtown Dallas.Source:Supplied

The protest was sparked after the deaths of two black men this week, including Philando Castile, who was killed on Wednesday during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Minnesota.

His girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, recorded the aftermath of the incident on live video. She said Castile was shot five times as he sat at the steering wheel reaching into his back pocket for his ID.

Alton Sterling, a black man aged 37, was shot dead by police outside a convenience store. The shooting was caught on video and caused outrage in the US as Mr Sterling was shot by an officer while already pinned to the ground.

A Dallas Area Rapid Transit police officer receives comfort at the Baylor University Hospital emergency room entrance Thursday, July 7, 2016, in Dallas. Picture: Ting Shen
A Dallas Area Rapid Transit police officer receives comfort at the Baylor University Hospital emergency room entrance Thursday, July 7, 2016, in Dallas. Picture: Ting ShenSource:AP

 

Live TV video showed protesters marching along a street when the shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover.

Scores of police and security officers were on hand. Police and others hunched behind cars outside a carpark. Officers with guns drawn were running near and into a carpark as police searched for the shooter.

“Oh my God, I mean we’re all seeing this together,” one reporter could be heard during a live cross. “This is not clear, it is not clear, it’s not clear to me what we are seeing but the situation is escalating. That officer is not moving.”

A man lays on the ground after yelling ‘Don't shoot me’ at police during a rally in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday. Picture: AFP PHOTO/Laura Buckman
A man lays on the ground after yelling ‘Don't shoot me’ at police during a rally in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday. Picture: AFP PHOTO/Laura BuckmanSource:AFP

 

A police dispatcher reached by The Associated Press had no immediate comment while a spokesman for the mayor said he had no information he could share.

Firefighters and police at the scene were keeping people away.

“Everyone just started running,” Devante Odom, 21, told The Dallas Morning News.

“We lost touch with two of our friends just trying to get out of there.”

Carlos Harris, who lives downtown, told the newspaper that the shooters “were strategic”.

“It was tap pause. Tap tap pause.”

— with wires

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

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