Dallas shooting: Five police officers shot dead, others injured during protests

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Dallas shooting: Five police officers shot dead, others injured during protests

US president Barack Obama has branded the shooting in Dallas that killed five police officers a "vicious, calculated and despicable attack".

Mr Obama, who is in Poland for a NATO summit, said he had offered any federal government assistance the city needs amid the "tremendous tragedy".

The Dallas drama only closed when the final suspect at large died, reportedly from self inflicted gunshot wounds, after a two-hour standoff with police. In the attack, at 9pm Dallas time, snipers had shot dead five police officers and injured six other officers on duty during a protest over recent fatal police shootings of black civilians in the US.

"As I told Mayor Rawlings," Mr Obama said, "I think 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.

"We will learn more undoubtedly about their twisted motivations but let's be clear, there is no possible justification for these kinds of attacks or any violence against law enforcement. The FBI is already in touch with the Dallas police and anyone involved in these senseless murders will be held fully accountable. Justice will be done."

Mr Obama said it was a "wrenching reminder" of the sacrifices made by police, before hinting at the continual debate about gun control.

"We also know that when people are armed with powerful weapons, unfortunately it makes attacks like these more deadly and tragic and in the days ahead we're going to have to consider those realities as well," he said.

The protest was drawing to an end when shots rang out near the area of Market and Main streets in downtown Dallas just before 9pm on Thursday, local time. Carlos Harris, who lives downtown, said the shooters "were strategic. It was tap tap pause. Tap tap pause."

Harris, who said he was in the military, said he heard someone fire back with an AR-15. Before the shots were fired, the demonstrators were peacefully walking down Main Street. "The cops were peaceful," he said. "They were taking pictures with us and everything."

Dallas Police chief David Brown said it appeared four suspects had worked together to fire from elevated positions during the protest, shooting 11 Dallas police officers. Five of those officers were killed, at least two others are in a critical condition.

Associated Press reports a civilian, 37-year-old Shetamia Taylor, was wounded in the right calf shielding her four sons as gunfire rang out.

He said the snipers fired upon the officers "ambush-style", with some shot in the back in a bid to kill as many as possible.

"We believe that these suspects were positioning themselves in a way to triangulate on these officers ... and planned to injure and kill as many law enforcement officers as they could," he said.

In the hours after the shooting, three suspects were taken into custody while one remained in negotiations with police from the garage of El Centro College in Main Street, after shooting at them for 45 minutes. He was later reported to have died of self inflicted wounds.

Two of the suspects were arrested after they were seen to throw a camouflaged bag into the back of a black Mercedes before speeding from the scene of the shooting. Another suspect, a woman, was arrested near to El Centro College.

The suspect in the garage told negotiating police that "the end is coming" and he was going to "hurt and kill more of us, meaning law enforcements", Brown said. The suspect also said there were bombs "all over the place" across downtown Dallas. No explosive devices were found in a subsequent search of the area.

"We are being very careful in our tactics... as we negotiate further," Brown said in a press conference at 12.40am on Friday, local time.

"We still don't have a complete comfort level that we have all the suspects... we're likely to be working throughout the early morning hours of Friday until we're satisfied that all suspects have been captured."

Earlier, the Dallas Police Department had released an image of a "person of interest" who was wanted over the shooting, pictured wearing a camouflage t-shirt. However, it was later confirmed the man was not involved in the shooting.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) said one of its police officers was among the dead, and three other of its officers who were shot had injuries that were not life-threatening.

The protest was being held following the deaths of two men - Alton Sterling in Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Minnesota - in separate police shootings this week. The men, who were both black, were killed by police officers, and their deaths were captured on mobile phone cameras.

One witness at the protest in Dallas told Fox News that "complete pandemonium" broke out when shots were fired towards the end of the rally.

"Everyone just took off running," he said.

He believed the shooter had an assault rifle, and said police returned fire.

#breaking Crowd on the run downtown Dallas. Reports of an officer shot at the protest march. pic.twitter.com/zstZnDIRlm
— Doug Dunbar (@cbs11doug) July 8, 2016

The shooting unfolded near one of the busiest parts of the city's downtown.

Footage of the panic in the moments immediately after the shooting circulated widely on social media. In many of the videos, multiple gunshots could be heard ringing out, while teams of police officers could be seen running through the area.

As the incident unfolded Clay Jenkins, a Dallas County judge and the county's chief executive said "there's no indication of who the suspects are or what their motives were, except they fired on the police."

"We are still seeking a suspect that may be held up at a downtown building, so we're asking the public to stay away. All government buildings in that area are on lockdown. That's the government centre where this is happening."

The Dallas Police Department's Twitter account had been tracking the protest's progress through the city, but abruptly stopped tweeting about 9pm, local time.

CBS news anchor Doug Dunbar tweeted that a witness reported hearing "about 20 shots in succession".

Dozens of officers were at the scene "with their guns drawn", Dunbar said.

Another witness, Michael Bautista, said he saw one police officer on the ground as he fled the scene.

"I saw the bullets hitting the cop cars," he said.

He said the protesters had been involved in a "peaceful march" before the shooting occurred.

Devante Odom, 21, told The Dallas Morning News that everyone "just started running" when the shots were fired. "We lost touch with two of our friends just trying to get out of there," Devante said.

Renee Sifflet of Dallas stood at the corner of Commerce and Houston, waiting for the chaos to die down so she could retrieve her three teenage children, who were in hiding.

"I brought them here for a positive experience, something they could say they were part of when they're older," she said. "Then it turned negative."

When they started running, she said, she lost track of her 15-year-old son for two minutes in the mayhem. "Thank God he has a cellphone," she said.

Source: The Age

[Bandit]

Let's take it down a notch, Australian Media.

[Bandit]

It went from 4 suspects to 1.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Robot carrying bomb kills suspect wanted in shooting deaths of Dallas police

The horrifying details of Thursday night's mass shooting of five law enforcement officers in Dallas during an otherwise peaceful demonstration includes a startling revelation: Police apparently equipped their bomb-disposal robot with a bomb that it then detonated to kill the suspect.

According to Dallas PD Police Chief David Brown, police cornered one suspect, who has yet to be identified, in El Centro College and, after hours of negotiation and an exchange of gunfire, they brought in a "bomb robot."

"We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was ... The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb," he said.

This statement is remarkable on a number of levels.

Bomb detection and disarming robots are not a new phenomenon, but they are almost exclusively used to find ordinances and, if possible, detonate them far away from people. It's virtually impossible to find a report in which authorities actually use one of these robots to carry and detonate a bomb with the intention of killing a suspect.

It's not clear from Brown's statements where the bomb came from.

Brown said the suspect carried out the attack in response to recent police shootings and wanted to kill white people. The chief also said the suspect had told police would "eventually find the IEDs [Improvised Explosive Device]."

Following the sniper attack, the deadliest day for U.S. police since the 9/11 attacks, the Dallas PD swept the area for bombs. They completed that search early Friday without finding anything dangerous. It's not clear if they used bomb robots for this task.

Robots, like Endeavor's 710 Kobra have extension arms that can be used to pick up and manipulate objects. They are generally remote-controlled robots with some local intelligence. It's possible the Dallas PD had the robot pick up a bomb that was already near the suspect or in the suspect's possession. There's also the possibility that the robot was equipped with the ordinance prior to entering the scene.

We also don't know the make or model of Dallas PD's bomb robot, however a recent Dallas PD Blog post notes that the department's Explosive Ordnance Unit recently upgraded its equipment in May with new vehicles, new suits and new robots.

Source: Mashable

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Bandit]

They seem like good guys and I hope they sue the fuck out of the media. That was dangerous, he could have been killed.

[Bandit]

That's a pretty fucking sweet Selfie, you gotta admit..