A Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, Texas, turned fatal for multiple officers after gunfire rang out, at what was meant to be a peaceful march. The event was spurred by the shooting deaths of two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, by police. Both incidents were captured on video and broadcast to the internet in quick succession, and the public sense of fury is palpable. At the time of this writing, protests are heating up in Oakland, where a crowd has blocked a highway and demanded to speak with the mayor. In Dallas, the situation started off with cooperation between the public and policemen, who marched with the crowd in solidarity.
Then tragedy struck when at least 11 officers were struck by two snipers who were perched at elevated positions. Four officers died while the others remain in critical condition or have undergone surgery. Reports flew everywhere and police tweeted a photo of a “suspect.” That man turned himself in after the department walked him back as “a person of interest.” The man also appeared in photos and a video after shots started flying. He’s cooperating with police, who also searched for a suspect who left a package.
BREAKING: Dallas police say the two suspected snipers are in custody, threat to the public is over. 11 officers shot, at least 4 killed.
— 97.1 FM Talk (@971FMTalk) July 8, 2016
Police now say they have the two suspected snipers in custody along with a female suspect. A late-breaking police press conference also suggests that four snipers may have triangulated fire, but that’s still a theory. However, police say multiple explosive devices were scattered around the downtown area.
A couple of new videos illustrate the horror of this situation. The first one, a CNN clip, also shows one suspect jumping out of vehicle. The eyewitness, Ismael Dejesus, says this gunman killed an officer who tried to stop him. He did so by shooting him to the ground and then firing three or four more times, execution-style.
This second video shows bullets raining down upon a downtown Dallas street as policemen duck behind their vehicles.