Five police officers dead after Dallas protest attack

UPDATE (3:20 p.m.): The man who opened fire on police in Dallas during a protest Thursday evening was an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. Neighbors and family said 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson was “Army strong.” Army officials said he began serving in March 2009 and was deployed in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014. His service ended in April 2015.

Johnson graduated from high school in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite and is believed to have lived there with family. Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown said in a news conference today that during a standoff, Johnson said he’d acted alone and was unaffiliated with any group, though it remains unclear whether that was the case. Brown said there were others in custody, but he would not discuss the nature of those detentions. The chief added that police still didn’t know if investigators had accounted for all participants in the attack.

UPDATE (11:30 a.m.): Texas law enforcement officials have identified the main suspect in last night’s shooting as Micah Johnson, 25. They have not released Johnson’s middle name or hometown.

Police Chief David Brown said during his standoff with police Johnson said he was angry about this week’s police shootings of African-American men in Baton Rouge, La., and St. Paul, Minn.

Johnson died after police sent a robot-controlled bomb to kill him.

OUR EARLIER REPORT: Five police officers died and seven others were injured after a coordinated attack during a peaceful protest in Dallas last night.

City officials said at least two suspects shot at officers from the tops of buildings and parking garages in downtown Dallas as people gathered to protest the shooting this week of two African-American men at the hands of police in Baton Rouge, La., and St. Paul, Minn. Two of the protesters also suffered gunshot wounds.

Mayor Mike Rawlings announced this morning that one suspect who held officers at bay overnight in a standoff has died. The suspect claimed to have planted a bomb, prompting a prolonged search for explosive devices throughout the area. In the end, police used their own explosive device to “blast him out,” Rawlings said of the suspect. The mayor said he did not know how the suspect died, but investigators found no evidence of any bombs the shooters might have left behind.

Dallas officials have not identified the shooters or offered a possible motive for the attack. One of the suspects is a woman. Officers detained the other two suspects after seeing them speed away from the area in a black Mercedes.

President Barack Obama called the shootings unjustified and said people who want to root out bias in the justice system could still support law enforcement officers trying to keep their communities safe. Obama and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, both said they were praying for the officers and their families.

According to The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which monitors police deaths, this is the deadliest attack on law enforcement since 9/11.