Five police officers shot dead in US protests over brutality

Snipers shot dead five police officers and wounded seven others in Dallas during a protest against police brutality in the wake of two fatal shootings of black men in other US cities, the city’s mayor said today

Two civilians were also shot and wounded in the chaotic fray late Thursday in the sprawling Texas city, Mike Rawlings said in an interview with US media.

President Barack Obama called it a “vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement” and pledged that those responsible would be held accountable.

One suspect was killed in a tense showdown with police in a parking garage, he confirmed, while the other three suspects in custody, including one black woman, were “not being real cooperative”.

It was the single biggest loss of life for law enforcement in America since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and appeared likely to further strain already tense race relations in the country.

“They put their lives on the line, lost their lives for the safety of citizens, exercising their right to speech. And it is a terrible tragedy,” Rawlings told CNN.

“I don’t know why we have to constantly be angry at each other. We’ve got to make sure that we love each other, and not argue with each other.”

Rawlings explained that police used an explosive device sent in by robot during the standoff with the suspect, who he only described as “male”.

Sweeps have been completed and no explosives were found, Dallas police major Max Geron said on Twitter.

One witness at the rally spoke of “complete pandemonium,” in an area close to the site where President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963.

“There were blacks, whites, Latinos, everybody. There was a mixed community here protesting. And this just came out of nowhere,” Cory Hughes, a protest organiser, told CNN. “I’m still kind of startled, shaken up. As you know being in the front, it’s almost like the gunshots were coming at us. It was complete pandemonium. It’s bananas.”

Earlier, Police Chief David Brown said three suspects had been taken into custody: a woman and two men found with camouflage bags in a car. Brown indicated it is likely that there are more suspects.

He said police believed at least two snipers had shot at police ambush-style from high vantage points.

“Just because we say black lives matter doesn’t mean blue lives don’t matter,” Obama had said overnight in support of police after arriving in Warsaw for a Nato summit.

Downtown Dallas was on lockdown, with no bus or rail service and flight restrictions.

Outside Parkland Hospital, police saluted their fellow officers who lost their lives or were wounded in the shooting.

Other people later joined the officers for an impromptu vigil.

The Dallas protest was one of several nationwide ones over the deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota that have prompted Obama to make an emotional appeal for urgent police reform.

Thousands marched in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Saint Paul, Washington and other cities late Thursday, with more than 1,000 protesters gathering in New York’s Times Square.

The suspect in the Dallas police sniper attacks told negotiators that he wanted to kill white people, especially white police officers, after a recent spate of US officer-involved shootings of black men, said Brown.

He appealed for unity in the wake of the attacks, saying: “This must stop—this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.”

“Dallas officers are hurt. We are heartbroken. There are no words to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city,” Brown told reporters.