Downtown Dallas was in lockdown early Friday after snipers shot 11 officers, five fatally, during a protest over deadly police shootings of black men elsewhere.
Three people were in custody and a fourth suspect exchanged gunfire with authorities in a parking garage at El Centro Community College into the morning, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said.
NBC Dallas Fort-Worth reported the fourth suspect had been “neutralized” at around 2:45 a.m. (3:45 ET). Earlier, he had told police negotiators that “the end is coming” and that “there are bombs all over the place in this garage and downtown,” Brown said.
It was the deadliest day for law enforcement since 9/11.
President Barack Obama, who was in Poland for a NATO meeting, condemned the “vicious, callous and despicable attack.”
“I believe I speak for every single American when I say that we are horrified over these events and that we stand united with the people and the police department in Dallas,” the president said.
In what Brown described as an “ambush-style” shooting, at least two snipers fired from an elevated positions on police officers minutes before 9 p.m. local time (10 p.m. ET).
“We believe that these suspects were positioning themselves in a way to triangulate on these officers from two different perches in garages in the downtown area, and planned to injure and kill as many law enforcement officers as they could,” he told a news conference — noting that some victims were shot in the back.
This map gives a sense of how much of Downtown #Dallas is shut down right now https://t.co/5PdWdI6QWV @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/TSw1RpIMzZ
— Ben Russell (@BenRussellNBC5) July 8, 2016
Four of the five slain officers were Dallas police, and the fifth was a Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer. A civilian was also wounded, authorities said.
Around 800 people were at the demonstration, and around 100 police officers were assigned to the event and the surrounding area. The shooting occurred after the demonstration ended and as a march was taking place.
