Sniper Shooting: Dallas Police Say ‘Gunman Shows Tactical Skill In Ambush’
The gunman in downtown Dallas, wearing light tan pants and a dark tan jacket, crouches behind a trash can next to the pillar of an office building.
He stalks his target, who stands behind a pillar just a few feet away, then charges with a rifle.
The assailant bobs and weaves – while firing – then circles the pillar and squeezes off rounds into the back of a collapsing body in a dark, short-sleeved uniform.
The scene unfolds in a widely circulated video that appears to have captured one killing in Thursday’s ambush of Dallas police that left five officers dead, and seven other officers and two civilians wounded.
The shooter’s maneuvers make clear that the gunman had extensive tactical training, military experts who reviewed the video told Reuters. The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed.
Taken from a nearby balcony or rooftop, looking down on the bloodshed, the video captures what may be a telling moment in the deadliest attack on U.S. law enforcement since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
The shooting erupted near the end of a peaceful march of hundreds of people to protest the killings of two black men by police in other cities this week. Dallas police were there to ensure their safety.
The ambush ended hours later when Dallas police used a robot carrying a bomb to kill a suspect that had screamed that he wanted to kill “white people, especially white officers” said Dallas Police Chief David Brown, who is black.
“The end is coming,” Brown said the suspect warned police during the standoff, while threatening that bombs had been planted nearby.
Dallas police confirmed Friday afternoon that the dead suspect is Micah X. Johnson, 25, a former member of the U.S. Army Reserve.
While authorities, including the mayor of Dallas, said they believe Johnson was the lone gunman, they are still looking into whether there were co-conspirators. They have not commented on the video and Reuters could not independently confirm that Johnson is the shooter in the video.
Johnson was a private first class in the U.S. Army Reserve from March 2009 to April 2015.
He was deployed to Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014 and earned a number of service medals, according to U.S. Army records.
The shooter captured in the video displayed a high level of tactical sophistication.
The Dallas Police Chief described a chilling exchange between Johnson and officers attempting to negotiate his surrender
“The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers,” Brown said. “The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter. He said he was upset about the recent police shootings.”
(Parts:Reuters,Yahoo)
