Five officers have been killed after at least eleven officers were shot by snipers in downtown Dallas, Texas, in one of the worst mass police shootings in US history.
The shootings, carried out by two snipers from elevated positions, occurred at around 9 p.m. Thursday as a protest rally was drawing to an end.
Hundreds of people had gathered downtown Dallas to protest the police shootings of two African-American men in as many days in Minnesota and Louisiana.
A large number of police vehicles and personnel gathered at the sprawling crime scene.
Police initially said that four officers had lost their lives in the gunfire. A fifth officer later died in hospital.
“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,” Police chief David Brown said. “Some were shot in the back.”
Police said that officers had three suspects in custody and that a suspicious package was found at a suspect’s location. The arrests were made following an exchange of gunfire
with Dallas SWAT teams.
Police had earlier posted the photo of a man on Twitter, describing him as one of the suspects.
Brown later said that officers were negotiating with a shooting suspect at a garage near El Centro College. The suspect told officers that bombs have been planted in multiple locations. The chief said the suspect had exchanged gunfire with police.
Police were trying to arrest the suspect alive to make him give information about other suspects and their plans. The suspect, however, reportedly shot and killed himself during the standoff with police.
Bomb squad teams were sweeping the downtown in search of possible bombs. – Press TV.
