Obama condemns fatal shootings of five Dallas cops; sniper was killed by detonating robot
President Barack Obama. Emmanuele Contini / Shutterstock.com
Updated: President Barack Obama has condemned the sniper attacks on Dallas police on Thursday night that killed five officers, wounded seven others and wounded two civilians.
“There has been a vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement,” Obama said Friday morning from Warsaw. “Police in Dallas were on duty doing their jobs, keeping people safe, during peaceful protests.” The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and the Dallas Morning News have stories on the developments.
Police arrested three suspects and a fourth was killed early Friday by a an explosive delivered by a robot that was detonated near the suspect. But the New York Times reported Friday afternoon that there was apparently just one gunman, Micah Johnson, the man who was killed by the robot-delivered bomb. Its report is based on information from an unnamed senior law enforcement official.
Before he was killed, the suspect told police he was not affiliated with any groups and he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers, according to Dallas Police Chief David Brown. The suspect said he was upset by the recent police shootings.
Four of the slain officers are members of the Dallas police department and the fifth was a transit officer.
Johnson was an Army veteran with no criminal record in Texas. He served for nine months in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reports.
“We’re hurting,” Brown told reporters Friday. “Our profession is hurting. Dallas officers are hurting. We are heartbroken.”
“This must stop—this divisiveness between our police and our citizens,” Brown said. “We don’t feel much support most days. Let’s not make today most days. Please, we need your support to be able to protect you from men like these, who carried out this tragic, tragic event.”
Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke about the attack on Friday in remarks that referenced the police shootings of two black men this week.
“The peaceful protest that was planned in Dallas last night was organized in response to the tragic deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota,” Lynch said in remarks prepared for delivery. “We have opened a civil rights investigation in Louisiana and we are providing assistance to local authorities in Minnesota who are leading the investigation there. Today, we are feeling the devastating loss of Dallas Area Rapid Transit Officer Brent Thompson and four other fallen officers whose names remain unreleased as we await notification of all the families. After the events of this week, Americans across the county are feeling a sense of helplessness, of uncertainty and of fear. These feelings are understandable and they are justified. But the answer must not be violence. The answer is never violence.
“Rather, the answer must be action: calm, peaceful, collaborative and determined action.”
ABA President Paulette Brown also released a statement. It reads:
“The American Bar Association is deeply troubled by the events of the past few days. The incidents are at the same time heartbreaking, infuriating and terrifying. Our civil society and the safety of all in it—citizens and law enforcement—rely on the rule of law.
“It is imperative that the law be fairly applied and enforced. All citizens must perceive our justice system as fair. It also is essential that laws and authority are respected and followed. Violence is not an appropriate response. We must not let these tragic events define us as a nation or send us down the wrong path.
“The ABA is urgently exploring opportunities to develop creative solutions to this problem that affects us all. As the voice of the legal profession in America, the ABA calls on all lawyers to work quickly and collaboratively toward viable and just answers to these issues.”