Dallas Police 'Ambush': 11 Officers Shot, 5 Killed During Protest

[drunkenshoe]

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/dallas-police-ambush/protests-spawn-cities-across-u-s-over-police-shootings-black-n605686

Much of downtown Dallas was in lockdown early Friday after snipers shot 11 officers, five fatally, during a protest over recent shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Three people were in custody and a fourth suspect exchanged gunfire with authorities in a parking garage downtown 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.

Related: Witnesses Recount Dallas Shooting Horror

Extensive sweeps of downtown for explosives were underway in the early hours.

At least two snipers fired from an elevated positions on police officers minutes before 9 p.m. CT, according to Brown. He described the shootings as "ambush style."

"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 â€" noting that some were shot in the back.

President Barack Obama, who was traveling to Warsaw, Poland, for a NATO meeting, had been briefed on the incident, according to a White House spokesman.

PlayDallas Shooting Injures 11 Police Officers, Kills 4 Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed
Dallas Shooting Injures 11 Police Officers, Kills 4 4:52
Much of downtown Dallas was in lockdown early Friday after snipers shot 11 officers, five fatally, during a protest over recent shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Three people were in custody and a fourth suspect exchanged gunfire with authorities in a parking garage downtown 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.

Related: Witnesses Recount Dallas Shooting Horror

Extensive sweeps of downtown for explosives were underway in the early hours.

At least two snipers fired from an elevated positions on police officers minutes before 9 p.m. CT, according to Brown. He described the shootings as "ambush style."

"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 â€" noting that some were shot in the back.

President Barack Obama, who was traveling to Warsaw, Poland, for a NATO meeting, had been briefed on the incident, according to a White House spokesman.

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Police in Negotiations With Dallas Shooting Suspect 3:56
The search for shooters stretched across hotels, restaurants, businesses and some residential apartments. The scene was chaotic, with helicopters hovering overhead and officers with automatic rifles on the street corners.

There may be other suspects at large. "We still don't have a complete comfort level that we have all the suspects," Brown said. Police were in contact with the FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Brown said.

"There had to be some speculation from us there would be some knowledge of the [demonstration] route," he said.

Brown said investigators are working under the assumption that all the suspects were working together. They have not been cooperative, he said. "We just are not getting the cooperation we'd like to know that answer of why, the motivation, who they are."

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, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said. The shooting occurred after the demonstration ended and as a march was taking place.

Related: Deadliest Attacks on U.S. Law Enforcement Since 1900

"At 8:58, our worst nightmare happened," Rawlings said. "It is a heartbreaking moment for the city of Dallas, Rawlings said.

A person at the protest said they were "making our second lap" when gunfire erupted.

"We heard shots, we smelled gunpowder, and that's when everything got really intense and surreal," the witness told MSNBC. "We just started to run and grab kids," he said.

The demonstration was in reaction to the police shootings of two black men, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge Tuesday and Philando Castile Wednesday in a St. Paul suburb.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state Department of Public Safety to offer any assistance needed. "In times like this we must remember â€" and emphasize â€" the importance of uniting as Americans," Abbott said in a statement.

Thursday night, Dallas police distributed a photo of a man they called a "person of interest." The person in that photo turned himself in, police said. It does not appear he was part of the four suspects later mentioned by Brown.

Attorney General Kamala Harris said the shootings in Dallas were "a grave reminder of the dangers our law enforcement officers face each day in service of their communities.

"I pray for the officers who lost their lives tonight, for their grieving families and our law enforcement brothers and sisters in Dallas," she added in a statement.

The demonstration in Dallas was one of several held in cities across the county Thursday, most of them peacefully.

In Saint Paul, Minnesota, a crowd estimated to be more than a thousand strong gathered outside a school where one of those men killed, Philando Castile, worked as a kitchen supervisor.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana mourners gathered in a "second line" parade for Alton Sterling, who was killed by police on Tuesday in an incident that was recorded on video by a bystander. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into that shooting.

"It can be any brother or sister out here. This ain't just started; they've been killing us," Chermicka Brown, a friend of Sterling's who joined protesters outside the store where he was shot, told NBC affiliate WVLA in Baton Rouge.

This is horrible. Snipers? FFS Snipers. Bomb threats... A whole new level of domestic terrorism. Let's hope it won't spread. Guys, be careful. I know it sounds stupid, the country is huge and all, but these things can catch like fire some times, even can cause other kinds of social explosions or distress. This one is different.

[drunkenshoe]

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/08/us/philando-castile-alton-sterling-protests/index.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/08/watch-man-facebook-live-streams-during-the-dallas-police-shootin/

There are videos in the links. It's horrifiyng. This is by far the only event happened in the US that scared the hell out of me since 9/11.

[drunkenshoe]

http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/dallas-police-shot-in-dallas-protest/news-story/2f6ee162afb6e5af75bf26ab259ff593

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

[drunkenshoe]

So nobody is freaked out by this? I am. It seems pretty serious. I think it also means a whole bunch of related issues (from gun issues to racism issues) just escalated to something bigger. May be people don't even want to talk about it.

[Flanker1Six]

Can't say as I'm freaked out by it.   Given all the identity politics and divisiveness engaged in by the usual players, non stop flagellation by the media of any incident with the remotest connection to race, genuine incidents of injustice and excessive force (by authorities), escalating extremism on both the left and right (including our two main parties)...........it was inevitable.  Once again; an excitable young man between the ages of 16 and 35 got buzzed up over a cause and decided he needed to "get some".  Just wasn't ISIS or islam this time.   

Very similar to the McVeigh-Nichols, Oklahoma City bombing in '95.  The lads got all stoked up on some ideology (mostly filled with hate for "the others"), and took it out on a building with a Day Care Center in it.   All for the cause. 

This shithead (Dallas last night) was all stoked up on Black Lives Matter, social injustice, and them bad 'ol police, so him and his crew's (if reports are true about the other three suspects in custody) pay back plan---you got to watch on TV. 

The interesting part for me was they finally nailed his ass with a bot bomb!   Let's see Amazon top that!   Stay tuned for drones to be used for a whole bunch of mischief involving mass casualties.

My expectation?   The white shitheads (spiritual successors to McVeigh-Nichols and their ilk) will soon try for some payback from the hated blacks/hispanics/whatever scapegoat group.   

What we really need is P. J. O'Rourke's  "young man registration".   

[drunkenshoe]

I don't think they are jacked up about some ideology. They are just angry and feel extreme hate.

The reason I was freaked out is that this event is something completely different than other shootings. It shouldn't be called a shooting either. It's a planned terrorist attack on a police force. It's not even a shoot out exploding after a heated argument in a crowd, but right out executing people from long distance.

The coming elections, the general political climate...this thing could get really bad in a serious level. It's not something to take lightly.

I get you guys have watched it all day on tv, don't want to see it. We had it several times in detail. I'm just worried. This is scary. Let's hope this wouldn't be the beginning of something when looked back.

[aitm]

So nobody is freaked out by this? I am. It seems pretty serious. I think it also means a whole bunch of related issues (from gun issues to racism issues) just escalated to something bigger. May be people don't even want to talk about it.

Freaked out? No. Most of us understand this is going to be a loner when the target is all cops. The initial reports suspected several, but most of us hold on for a while and wait for the "semi-truth" to stumble out. I get more freaked out when I see bombs going off in Turkey and people getting shot up there because you have a active group out there looking to kill people and we have most likely a single nut job. hopefully I am not soon proven wrong.

[Nonsensei]

The media reports so often on this sort of thing that I have become completely desensitized. They report on every single shooting with even a spec of controversy, usually racial controversy.

In reality, while gun violence is very high in the United States as compared to many other countries, these incidents are still incredibly unusual in a nation of over 400 million people. Yet the media wants you to believe that shootings are rampant, that racism is just spiraling out of control and people are going to fight to the death in the streets nationwide in the near future.

In reality some worthless shithead decided to murder some people for reasons so stupid they can barely be put into words. But thats not sexy. Thats not interesting. Reporting it exactly how it is doesn't fill a 24 hour news cycle. They need to ALARM us. Keep us watching, biting our nails and wondering when some maniac is going to bust into our homes and blow us away. They need everything they report on to seem incredibly important. The problem is that almost nothing they report on is that important so they need to pretend.

But after decades of pretending, even dumbasses like me can catch on to the bullshit. So yeah, when the media reports on something, I assume its utterly irrelevant to any actual national trend and that the story was only chosen for its drama value.

[GSOgymrat]

I disagree that what is going on right now is business as usual. This was the deadliest single day for law enforcement officers since 9/11. The Pulse shooting was the worst terrorist attack since 9/11. There are racism protests going on in cities throughout the country. This presidential election is the most extreme in my lifetime. Where I live in NC people are bitterly divided on LGBTQ rights and religious people seem more political than ever. For example, one of my coworker posted this on Facebook today.



I'm not freaking out but I am concerned where all this is going and how much violence we will see until it settles down. I don't like Clinton or Trump but good luck to whichever one has to step into this mess.

[Atheon]

It reminds me of the LA riots of 1992. Black people had been complaining about police brutality, but nobody believed them. Then finally someone captures it on video. But then the cops are acquitted. The resulting riots, though unjustifiable, were at least understandable.

What we see is time and time again, white cops gunning down black suspects who are unarmed or who are compliant, and time and time again, the cops get away with it unpunished. In the meantime, we see cops confronting armed white people, and they deal with them calmly and professionally, de-escalating the situation. The conclusion in many people's minds that cops are out to kill black people is understandable. This flares up passions, and inevitably some will be pushed over the brink.

What has to occur is a complete overhaul of the police system, including punishment and conviction of police who are too quick to escalate to deadly force.

Instituting strong gun control to reduce the number of guns on the streets would also be a good course of action to follow.

[drunkenshoe]

aitm, of course having active terrorist groups in a little country is more scary. We have 3, not one. (You highly likley don't even see any news about the second one, let alone the third).  You know how scared I am. And the reason I see this differently, probably because of the situation I live in and that I see you guys generally think this wouldn't happen in your country. Because you tend to define terrorism in one way, distance it from your life, home land when 3 kinds of it killing people around in the country. Because it's like in contrast you guys see it different when it is not. And I think this is a delusion. There is really not a difference what is going on here and there, but what we culturally shape it and percieve it.

In my opinion this Dallas event could be a turning point for the worst. It's different. This is not some random violence created by a man in distress who got his hands on some weapons as a result of some clumsy situation because of personal life issues like we see all the time. This is highly unusual as violent events, shootings go in the US. I'm freaked out, because I can see that this is going somewhere. And if it goes 'there', hundreds of people would die in days, before anyone would even get what happened. I'm not making some sort of a claim or trying to scare anyone.

In my opinion, what's more alarming is the way people seem to dismiss this attack. Media is very manipulative. Defining it as if it is a random shooting when it is a planned terrorist attack. Doesn't matter if it is a one man. Worst time for political correctness. You have a domestic terrorsim issues. NOT ONE. But several. People must discuss about it openly; get conscious of it.

The reason I used the expression "scared me since 9/11" because that was what I felt. I hadn't seen the expression used around in the net then. It was random.


Sure, random riots could be deadly, but compared to certain groups coming face to face armed head to toe it would be the least part of it. And with Dallas there has been a FIRST SHOT, now. It's a trigger that has already been pulled. Doesn't matter how ridiculous it sounds, this will be seen like that by many people and certainly with the obviou sones.

If events escalate to the worst, there could be heavy interventions by the army. Federal Sate would even be forced provide one night emergency laws and confiscate weapons in certain regions -which it seems noone believes could happen,lol- and you know they WON'T give them up, because that's what they have been waiting for for years. In a way, this is their fear and anger justified and fed and fueled with the last 2 periods of administration.

Means hundreds of dead people, dead families, dead children...

This is not the civil war. This is far worse than civil war. This is people killing each other and an army opening fire against its own citizens it is supposed to protect. In 21st century, in United States of America. As far as American culture goes just the action itself -army killing civilians- would have very bad consequences even after things get calmed down and resolved.

I know it sounds like a 5th class bad movie scenario. But everything is pouring into the one point of pressure. Gun issues, racism issues, elections, scaremongering policies in and out. Fucking Orange piece of shit.  Even the Brexit you guys think Americans have no idea would have influence on this. Fragmentation. Radicalisation. Fear. Anger. Hatred. Panic.

Nobody believes these things could happen in the US I guess. Probably because of the general culture, the gun culture...the fantastical constitution you guys have...there is this delusion.   Or may be what it seems to me from outside.


Anyway, be careful. Be conscious about this. Beware. I don't know what to say.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

So nobody is freaked out by this? I am. It seems pretty serious. I think it also means a whole bunch of related issues (from gun issues to racism issues) just escalated to something bigger. May be people don't even want to talk about it.

Since the '60s I've heard "warnings" that the US was about to erupt into civil war. Never happened. A year from now you'll have trouble remembering the details of this event.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Civil war isn't going to happen or at least I seriously doubt that it will. The US military is just too powerful for any one group to overcome it, but I do think we're going to have more riots and protests and unreasoned killings by both police and civilians.
Strange times we live in no doubt.
Overall crime is down by huge margins and yet nobody seems to believe it mainly I think because of the 24 hour news cycle with its never ending mantra of 'If it bleeds it leads."
Small groups can really stir the shit and grab the headlines and make people very fearful even if the odds of the violence affecting the average person is unlikely.
Where I live it seems very insular in the suburbs, but it's very racially mixed. So far I've seen very few signs of trouble here, but that could change very quickly.  I'm more fearful of vigilate type of stuff going on here than I am of the police mainly because we seldom see police around here.
I'm glad I no longer live in the city although there are times when I really miss it. Where I live now as compared to a few years ago it's like the difference between night and day.

[drunkenshoe]

You misunderstand me.

I don't think a civil war is going to happen in the US. No. I don't think suddenly, tomorrow or a week later or even a month later horrible series of events will ensue. I don't think so.

What I am saying is that decades of scaremongering policies, media bullshit on every event did NOT just desensitize people against shootings or violent events, BUT also desensitized them to the shifts in these violent events. This is what Dallas police 'shooting' is. A shift. Other than that I completely agree with you all that media has been fucking it up for years.

Someone making a plan; getting a long distance assault weapon, picking a spot to kill specific targets (white, police officer) execution style, one by one, supposedly declaring racial hatred while doing it, just hours after the president of the country defined 2 shootings that killed 2 black people with days apart as an "American issue" in this specific election season, where one of the candidate is thriving on racist remarks and in this general political climate IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THAN a man getting some weapon and go mad over something start shooting around or getting into somewhere taking random people hostages randomly because he had with it.


This is my point. And I just drew the worst possible picture after that above in my previous post. That's it. 

[Mermaid]

So nobody is freaked out by this? I am. It seems pretty serious. I think it also means a whole bunch of related issues (from gun issues to racism issues) just escalated to something bigger. May be people don't even want to talk about it.

I am freaked out by it.