Dallas Police Chief David Brown prays during a a vigil in Dallas Friday following the shootings Tursday that left five police officers dead.LAURA BUCKMAN/AFP / Getty Images
The Shooter
Micah Xavier Johnson, the former United States army reservist who shot and killed five Dallas police officers and wounded seven others on Thursday, had plans for a wider attack, the chief of the city's police force said Sunday.
A search of Mr. Johnson's home in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite uncovered bomb-making material, ballistic vests, rifles, as well as a journal that pointed to "other plans," Dallas Police Chief David Brown told CNN on Sunday.
Chief Brown described Mr. Johnson as someone who suffered from "some delusion."
"There was quite a bit of rambling in the journal that's hard to decipher," the chief said in his interview with the show State of the Nation.
Police were also poring over Mr. Johnson's belongings in an effort to decode a note that he wrote in his own blood – the initials "RB" – on a wall where he was barricaded shortly before police killed him with an explosive device, Chief Brown said.
At an earlier press conference, Chief Brown said that Mr. Johnson told police negotiators that he was upset over the recent spate of killings in the United States of black men by police and that he wanted to "kill white people, especially white officers."
The Training
Mr. Johnson used what authorities described as a "shoot and move" technique on the night of the carnage – a tactic that kept officers guessing about his whereabouts and led authorities to initially believe they were under attack by more than one sniper.
The 25-year-old took private firearms training about two years ago at a school, the Academy of Combative Warrior Arts, that offers instruction in "shooting on the move." One of the school's courses, the tactical applications program, describes its teachings on its website: "Reality is highly dynamic, you will be drawing your firearm, moving, shooting on the move, fixing malfunctions, etc. … all under high levels of stress."
The technique is one that appears to have fascinated Mr. Johnson. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said at a news conference Friday that investigators uncovered "manifestos" that Mr. Johnson had written about the tactic.
Mr. Johnson also took advantage of his surroundings during the attack, authorities said. As the Black Lives Matter march moved slowly through downtown Dallas, Mr. Johnson sped ahead of the demonstration in a black SUV and then took to "high ground" to begin shooting, Chief Brown said.
The Robot
Chief Brown defended his decision to kill Mr. Johnson with a bomb-carrying robot on Sunday, telling CNN that the gunman had staked out a position where he was hidden from sniper fire and possibly able to attack again.
After attempted negotiations failed – Chief Brown said Mr. Johnson laughed, sang and taunted officers during his discussions with them – the chief told his subordinates to use their "creativeness." That edict resulted in officers fastening one pound of C4 explosive material to one of the department's remote-controlled robots, a device usually reserved for detonating bombs set by criminals, not by the officers behind the controls.
Chief Brown shot back at critics, whom he described as being safe in the "comforts of their homes or offices" as they publicly questioned the decision to blow up Mr. Johnson.
"I approved it and I'll do it again if presented with the same circumstances," the police chief told CNN.
"I began to feel that it was only at a split second he would charge us and take out many more before we would kill him."
The Chief
Chief Brown, who has become the primary spokesperson in the aftermath of the shootings, is well equipped to cope with tragedy. In the course of his career, he has had to deal with the slayings of his former police partner, his brother and his son.
The most public of those tragedies was the shooting of David Brown Jr., his 27-year-old son who was killed by police in a shootout south of Dallas on Father's Day in 2010.
Mr. Brown Jr., who had a history of bipolar disorder, was high on the drug PCP and in the throes of what his girlfriend described as a psychotic episode, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News. He shot and killed a man in his car and, when police arrived, he exchanged gunfire with them. He shot one officer in the head with a rifle, killing him, before he was taken down by nine gunshots from other officers. The bloodshed took place not long after his father was appointed the city's police chief.
In 1988, Chief Brown's former partner, Walter Williams, was investigating a disturbance when he was ambushed and shot in the head. The chief's brother, Kevin, was killed by drug dealers in Phoenix in 1993, an incident that he has not discussed publicly.
The Protests
Meanwhile, public anger over last week's killings of two black men by police – 32-year-old Philando Castile near Minneapolis, Minn., and 37-year-old Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. – continued to spark demonstrations and confrontations with law enforcement across the United States.
After a heated standoff with heavily armoured riot police, at least 100 protesters were arrested in Baton Rouge late Saturday, including DeRay Mckesson, one of the most well-known figures in the Black Lives Matter movement. Mr. Mckesson, who unsuccessfully campaigned for the Democratic nomination in the race to become mayor of Baltimore, documented his own arrest on the video streaming service Periscope.
The video shows Mr. Mckesson walking with other protesters on the shoulder of a road. An officer yells at Mr. Mckesson and refers to his bright red running shoes: "You with them loud shoes? I see you on the road. If I get close to you, you're going to jail."
Mr. Mckesson pans his camera down to record how he is standing on the shoulder of the road, while other protesters shout back at police, explaining there isn't a sidewalk to walk on. A few seconds later, an officer apprehends Mr. Mckesson, yelling, "City police. You're under arrest. Don't fight me. Don't fight me."
Police charged Mr. Mckesson with simple obstruction of a highway of commerce and he was released from custody on Sunday.
Reuters, New York Times News Service, Associated Press