Dallas gunman Micah Johnson grew up wanting to be a police officer
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Jul 15, 2016
Authorities have named former US Army reservist Micah Johnson as the lone gunman in Thursday night's attack in Dallas, which came at the end of a rally to protest against police killings.
The fact that Johnson had material for explosives and talked of using homemade bombs during a standoff with police before he was killed indicated he could have inflicted more damage with more time, said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. And he said Johnson scrawled the letters "RB" in his own blood on a wall before dying.
In Baton Rouge, where one of the two killings occurred last week, more than 100 protesters were also arrested, local media reported citing police, among them the activist leader DeRay McKesson who live-streamed the incident.
More than 200 people were arrested in chaotic scenes during a new night of protests over U.S. police violence towards blacks as authorities yesterday revealed that the Dallas shooter had apparently been plotting a major bomb attack.
"We don't know who the "good guy" versus who the "bad guy" is, if everybody starts shooting", he added. Brown said he plans on releasing some of the conversation that took place during negotiations as soon as it is transcribed.
According to Dallas Police Chief David Brown, the plans of the Dallas sniper who murdered police in a Thursday night ambush reveal he was only just getting started. "I didn't see it coming", said Johnson's father, James.
Authorities say the suspect - identified as Micah Johnson, a member of the Army Reserve for six years - was planning to attack police on a larger scale but fast-tracked those plans after the recent police shootings of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana. "He is the officer in charge, and I think he made the right call", Rawlings said.
"Get off the protest line and put in an application", he said.
A man in black was spotted running into the police vehicle park building and officers were seen nearby with guns drawn.
Johnson, a 25-year-old believed to have been acting alone, was killed by a police bomb squad robot.
Investigators are now going through an estimated 170 hours of body camera video, collecting video from nearby surveillance cameras and going through a large stockpile of sophisticated bomb-making supplies found at Johnson's house.
"I asked the question of how much (explosives) we were using, and I said 'Don't bring the building down'".
And "this wasn't an ethical dilemma for me".
"I approved it and would do it again if presented with same circumstances", Brown told CNN.
