Five police officers have been shot dead and another nine injured at a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas, Texas.
Two civilians have also been killed, according to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.
Four snipers, one of them believed to be a woman, shot dead five police officers and injured another six in an ambush style attack during the civil rights protest in downtown Dallas last night. Four of the slain officers were from Dallas police, with the other one serving the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) police department.
According to DART, 43-year-old Brent Thompson was killed in the shooting to become the department’s first police officer to die on duty. The wounded DART officers were identified as 44-year-old Omar Cannon, 39-year-old Misty McBride, 44-year-old Elmar Cannon and 32-year-old Jesus Retana.
According to the Dallas Morning News, 40-year-old Michael Krol, 55-year-old Matthew Smith, 32-year-old Patrick Zamarripa, and 48-year-old Lorene Ahrens died while on duty with the Dallas Police Department. The department’s wounded officers were identified as 28-year-old Jorge Barrientos, 23-year-old Gretchen Rocha, 44-year-old Ivan Saldana, 47-year-old Giovanni Wells,
John Abbott and Bryan Shaw of the El Centro College Police, along with 38-year-old civilian Shetamia Taylor and another unknown civilian were also wounded.
According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, the shooting marks the deadliest day in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001, when 71 officers died.
The snipers opened fire from ‘elevated positions’ in a parking lot and shot their victims, according to Dallas police.
People have been encouraged to stay out of downtown Dallas.
Two #Dallas icons. @OmniHotels features a blue stripe. @ReunionTower has gone dark. pic.twitter.com/XXpFvLLOMh
— Charlie Scudder (@cscudder) July 8, 2016
Dallas Police Chief, David Brown said: “Investigators believe the four killers were positioning themselves in a way to triangulate on these officers from two different perches in the downtown area and planned to injure and kill as many law enforcement officers as they could.
“The suspect who was on the second-floor El Centro Garage. Two men who were caught trying to flee the scene with camouflage bags in a Mercedes were in custody and being interviewed by police.”
According to Brown, officers spent 45 minutes exchanging gunfire, eventually killing a man in the El Centro garage. Another woman in the same area was taken into custody.
https://www.facebook.com/michaelbautista86/videos/899698650159344/
