Dallas suspect amassed personal arsenal at suburban home

[rooster59]

Dallas suspect amassed personal arsenal at suburban home

WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press


DALLAS (AP) — An Army veteran killed by Dallas police after the sniper slayings of five officers amassed a personal arsenal at his suburban home, including bomb-making materials, bulletproof vests, rifles, ammunition and a journal of combat tactics, authorities said Friday.

The man identified as 25-year-old Micah Johnson told authorities he was upset about the fatal police shootings of two black men earlier this week and wanted to exterminate whites, "especially white officers," officials said.

He was killed by a robot-delivered bomb after the shootings, which marked the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In all, 12 officers were shot.

In Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee, authorities said gun-wielding civilians also shot officers in individual attacks that came after the black men were killed in Louisiana and Minnesota. Two officers were wounded, one critically.

President Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked for the public's prayers. In a letter posted online Friday, Abbott said "every life matters" and urged Texans to come together.

"In the end," he wrote, "evil always fails."

Johnson was a private first class from the Dallas suburb of Mesquite with a specialty in carpentry and masonry. He served in the Army Reserve for six years starting in 2009 and did one tour in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014, the military said.

After the attack, he tried to take refuge in a parking garage and exchanged gunfire with police, Police Chief David Brown said.

The suspect described his motive during negotiations and said he acted alone and was not affiliated with any groups, Brown said.

Johnson was black. Law enforcement officials didn't disclose the race of the dead officers.

The bloodshed unfolded just a few blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was slain in 1963.

The shooting began Thursday evening while hundreds of people were gathered to protest the killings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. Brown told reporters that snipers fired "ambush-style" on the officers. Two civilians were also wounded.

Authorities initially blamed multiple "snipers" for Thursday's attack, and at one point said three suspects were in custody. But by Friday afternoon, all attention focused on Johnson, and state and federal officials said the entire attack appeared to be the work of a single gunman.

With the lone shooter dead, Mayor Mike Rawlings declared that the city was safe and "we can move on to healing." He said the gunman wore a protective vest and used an AR-15 rifle, a weapon similar to the one fired last month in the attack on an Orlando, Florida, nightclub that killed 49 people.

When the gunfire began, the mayor said, about 20 people in the crowd were carrying rifles and wearing protective equipment. That raised early concerns that they might have been involved. But after conducting interviews, investigators concluded all the shots came from the same attacker.

A Texas law enforcement official identified the man killed in the parking garage as Johnson. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to release the information.

Around midday, investigators were seen walking in and out of a home believed to be Johnson's in Mesquite.

In Washington, the nation's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, called for calm, saying the recent violence can't be allowed to "precipitate a new normal."

Lynch said protesters concerned about killings by police should not be discouraged "by those who use your lawful actions as a cover for their heinous violence."

The other attacks on police included a Georgia man who authorities said called 911 to report a break-in, then ambushed the officer who came to investigate. That sparked a shootout in which both the officer and suspect were wounded but expected to survive.

In suburban St. Louis, a motorist shot an officer at least once as the officer walked back to his car during a traffic stop, police said. The officer was hospitalized in critical condition.

And in Tennessee, a man accused of shooting indiscriminately at passing cars and police on a highway told investigators he was angry about police violence against African-Americans, authorities said.

Video from the Dallas scene showed protesters marching along a downtown street about half a mile from City Hall when shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover. Officers crouched beside vehicles, armored SWAT team vehicles arrived and a helicopter hovered overhead.

Demonstrations were held in several other U.S. cities Thursday night to protest the police killings of two more black men: A Minnesota officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile while he was in a car with a woman and a child, and the shooting's aftermath was livestreamed in a widely shared Facebook video. A day earlier, Alton Sterling was shot in Louisiana after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers. That, too, was captured on a cellphone video.

The Dallas shootings occurred in an area of hotels, restaurants, businesses and some residential apartments only a few blocks from Dealey Plaza, the landmark made famous by the Kennedy assassination.

The scene was chaotic, with officers with automatic rifles on the street corners.

Marcus Carter, 33, was in the area when people started running toward him, yelling about gunshots. Carter said the first shot sounded like a firecracker. But then they proceeded in quick succession, with brief pauses between spurts of gunfire.

"It was breaks in the fire," he said. "It was a single shot and then after that single shot it was a brief pause. And then it was boom boom boom boom boom! Pause. Boom boom boom boom boom!"

Video posted on social media appeared to show a gunman at ground level exchanging fire with a police officer who was then felled.

The mayor said one of the wounded officers had a bullet go through his leg as three members of his squad were fatally shot around him.

"He felt that people don't understand the danger of dealing with a protest," said Rawlings, who spoke to the surviving officer. "And that's what I learned from this. We care so much about people protesting, and I think it's their rights. But how we handle it can do a lot of things. One of the things it can do is put our police officers in harm's way, and we have to be very careful about doing that."

Few details about the slain officers were immediately available.

Four of the dead were with the Dallas Police Department, a spokesman said. One was a Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer. The agency said in a statement that 43-year-old officer Brent Thompson, a newlywed whose bride also works for the police force, was the first officer killed in the line of duty since the agency formed a police department in 1989.

"Our hearts are broken," the statement said.

Theresa Williams said one of the wounded civilians was her sister, 37-year-old Shetamia Taylor, who was shot in the right calf. She threw herself over her four sons, ages 12 to 17, when the shooting began.

Other protests across the U.S. on Thursday were peaceful, including in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia. In Minnesota, where Castile was shot, hundreds of protesters marched in the rain from a vigil to the governor's official residence.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-07-09

[BuaBS]

Why didn't the shooter use a silencer ?

[rgraham]

Good riddance, move on.

[slapout]

Why didn't the shooter use a silencer ?

A rifle report, of caliber used, can be surpressed as to the report heard upon discharge (firing) but the report will still be loud enough to be heard. It would be about as loud as a 22 caliber which can be heard quite a distance away. It certainly would not be silent.

[sanukjim]

Why didn't the shooter use a silencer ?

A silencer is only good as a sound suppressor in low speed bullets.. The rifle ammo that you need for a long range kill would be over 2500 feet per second rendering a silencer useless.It is not like in the movies.

[sgtsabai]

I had read elsewhere he used an SKS which is 7.62X39. Not the most powerful, same round as AK 47 and not very accurate, in either weapon. It's not the cartridge, it is the weapon. MOA anywhere from 2 to 4 inches at 100 meters. The one I brought back from VN was the same. I "hogged" most of the soft wood and fiberglass bedded it. Brought the MOA down to 1 inch, not a sniper's weapon but ok for battle and killing coyotes. So now I don't know what was used. .........Unfortunately this has been brewing for some time with the continued murder of black people by militarized white cops. Makes me ashamed to have been a certified/commissioned law enforcement officer. And so it starts, murder begets murder. It won't solve the problem.

[elgordo38]

Why didn't the shooter use a silencer ?

He wanted to be heard and make a point. Its becoming a sad world. Sorry would like to type more but must rush to my brokers office and buy more shares in the gun manufacturing industry before they skyrocket. They always do after these incidents. Edited July 9, 2016 by elgordo38

[dunroaming]

rgraham wrote "good riddance, move on"

Is that good riddance to the cops or the shooter?

For the gun worshipping Americans, an opportunity to drool over the hardware.

[neverdie]

rgraham wrote "good riddance, move on"

Is that good riddance to the cops or the shooter?

For the gun worshipping Americans, an opportunity to drool over the hardware.

Hopefully it was the shooter.

Let's make it good riddance to military grade weapons in a civilian community.

When will enough be enough.

Time to wake up USA!

[impulse]

Unfortunately this has been brewing for some time with the continued murder of black people by militarized white cops. Makes me ashamed to have been a certified/commissioned law enforcement officer. And so it starts, murder begets murder. It won't solve the problem.

90+% of LEOs have nothing to be ashamed of. They do a tough job, dealing with scary people, under dangerous conditions.

I have tons of respect for the vast majority of them. I know couldn't do it.

Hopefully, ubiquitous smartphone cameras in every pocket now will help weed out the bad ones.

[ceolwynn]

rgraham wrote "good riddance, move on"

Is that good riddance to the cops or the shooter?

For the gun worshipping Americans, an opportunity to drool over the hardware.

Hopefully it was the shooter.

Let's make it good riddance to military grade weapons in a civilian community.

When will enough be enough.

Time to wake up USA!

as I recall, it's not legal to buy military style rifles in Paris...

unless you are a criminal buying

then from other criminals... but

we all know that never happens.

[farcanell]

Words from one of modern days greatest African Americans.... Well... Maybe someone with graphic skills put them in his mouth... But still...

[neverdie]

rgraham wrote "good riddance, move on"

Is that good riddance to the cops or the shooter?

For the gun worshipping Americans, an opportunity to drool over the hardware.

Hopefully it was the shooter.

Let's make it good riddance to military grade weapons in a civilian community.

When will enough be enough.

Time to wake up USA!

as I recall, it's not legal to buy military style rifles in Paris...

unless you are a criminal buying

then from other criminals... but

we all know that never happens.

Silly statement.

So if somehow nuclear weapons become available on the black market, we should open shops and make them available to the public?

Come on man, switch on.

How bout we let law enforcement folk deal with the 'illegal' weapons and we take certain weapons out of the hands of members of the public. It's bad enou when some civilian 'gets emotional' because <insert reason> and access his weapons catche which includes military grade weapons and then goes out on a killing spree, verses when his weapons catche doesn't contain military grade weapons.

Surely you can see the difference ?

I can, but for everyday ordinary folk that don't have to confront these individuals, I'm sure I canunderstand why you say the silly things you do.

So, in summary, Guns:- Not necessarily bad

Guns in bad people's hands: Bad.

Military grade guns in bad people's hands: Disasterous.

Military grade guns in good people's hands: Not required.

Please don't murky the waters, this ain't rocket science and it has worked outside the USA, for example, in Australia.

The illegal weapons circulating don't make this any diff, okay mai? Don't worry, I know it won't get through.

Anyway. Back to the USA, it's a new day, must be due for a new massacre. So sad.

[boomerangutang]

sgtsabai mentioned in an earlier thread how his brother is a gun lover but would never ever do anything extremist with guns.

He would have probably said the same of the Dallas shooter if you'd asked him the day before the shooting. Something like, "He's a man who collects and appreciates guns. He's a decorated combat veteran, so has a healthy respect for guns. He would never do anything extremist, like shoot innocents."

Re; Gun lover and Muslim hater Trump: If the shooter had been a Muslim, Trump would be shouting from the pulpit, "You see! I'm right! I'm always right! Muslims are coming over here and killing our brave citizens. You're all in danger! Vote for me, and I'll make America safe from extremism."

"Hillary and Obama probably personally let that Muslim in, without vetting him and....."

(Trump gets a tap on the shoulder by one of his handlers who whispers in his ear, "sir, it wasn't a Muslim. The shooter was a black American decorated war veteran.")

Trump continues; "Ok, but if he had been a Muslim, it would prove how all the shootings in our great country are caused by Muslim extremists. Remember that folks. Obama and Hillary won't even say the words 'Muslim extremists.' That proves that I'm braver than either of them, and tougher on terrorists too. And you people - go out and buy a lot more guns. Be proud to be an armed American. The more guns you own, the less likely this country will get taken over by Muslims and Mexicans."

[boomerangutang]

Just like your uncle Ernie is a fine fellow, until the day he rapes your daughter. So too is your gun-loving brother Al a fine fellow until the day he goes apeshit and shoots people when he gets very angry and/or vengeful about something.

http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/9b53eab97f/good-guy-with-a-gun-clarification

[neverdie]

Just like your uncle Ernie is a fine fellow, until the day he rapes your daughter. So too is your gun-loving brother Al a fine fellow until the day he goes apeshit and shoots people when he gets very angry and/or vengeful about something.

http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/9b53eab97f/good-guy-with-a-gun-clarification

That's it, even smart folks can do silly stuff when they get emotional.

Old mate comes home and finds he neighbour banging his misses of 40 years, he just snaps and gets his rocket rocket launcher from the bedroom safe and fires a round up his spinchta. If only the rocket launcher had been there.

[williamgeorgeallen]

Why didn't the shooter use a silencer ?

silencers require sub sonic or slower ammunition to be used. about 1000ft/second. subsonic ammo is no good for long range sniping especially from an AR which uses small projectiles. small slow moving projectiles are only good for close quarters combat.

[DM07]

Now, if only the guys who were shot all had guns, then they would have been able to defend...wait....

R.I.P. Coppers!

Edited July 10, 2016 by DM07