DALLAS – After discovering ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition, bomb-making materials and a journal outlining combat tactics in the suburban home of the Dallas gunman, police are certain that the second deadliest day following 9/11 was a severely premeditated attack.
Despite initial reports that at least two snipers were involved in the ambush, authorities are sure that the 25-year-old Army veteran responsible for the death of five Dallas police officers, Micah Xavier Johnson, acted alone.
According to Dallas Police Chief, David Brown, the attack was highly organized and “triangulated,” suggesting the shooter knew the protest routes. Police later determined Johnson had fired from different levels of elevation, some above the street, furthering the notion that the ambush had been thoroughly planned.
At a NATO summit, President Obama called the shootings “a vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement.”
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said officials were still determining what caused the assail, however, the setting is a large indicator. At an earlier conference, Brown said Johnson was “upset about Black Lives Matter.”
“He said he was upset about the recent police shootings. He said he was upset at white people. He said he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers,” Brown said.
It’s evident that the recent deaths of Alton Sterling of Louisiana and Philando Castile of Minnesota, just the latest examples of black deaths by police officers, severely affected Johnson.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch remarked on both the killings of the police officers in Dallas and the recent police- involved shootings saying it had been “week of profound grief and heartbreaking loss.”
Brown mentioned that prior to the march his department attended emergency planning sessions and was keeping an eye on social media for signs of potential danger. The Dallas Police Department even live-tweeted the protest, posting photos of officers posing with demonstrators, before Johnson began his rampage.
Richard Adams, a bystander, said the protest was “a lovely, peaceful march,” until shots were fired on Commerce Street when he heard what sounded like “a bunch of firecrackers going off.”
“All I know is this must stop, this divisiveness must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens,” Brown said.
Using a robot-controlled explosive device, Johnson was eventually killed by the police 45 minutes after authorities began negotiating.
