An Attack on Dallas Police Headquarters
Updated at 3:44 p.m.
Officials have confirmed that the man who fired at a Dallas police building on Saturday morning was killed by a police sniper after an hours-long standoff. Dallas Police Chief David Brown added that police believe the suspect acted alone in the attack.
While officials still haven’t confirmed the suspect’s identity—the man told officers his name was James Boulware—NBC News caught up with Boulware’s mother who said that her son suffered from mental illness and had a history of violence.
The family also confirmed his death in a statement released on Saturday. "We tried to get him mental help numerous times, but the system failed him, because he was declared 'sane.' He was very delusional. It was very obvious."
Updated at 10:50 a.m.
The suspect involved in the shooting at a police headquarters in Dallas is believed to have been killed after snipers opened fire on his van on Saturday morning.
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Police Chief David Brown told reporters that the standoff ended after police shooters fired on the van and struck the suspect. The man, who claimed to have explosives in his vehicle, has yet to be identified by authorities.
According to The Los Angeles Times, investigators believe the man acted alone, despite eyewitness accounts that suggest multiple people participated in the attack.
“We are blessed that our officers were not injured,” Brown told reporters, nothing that police officers and staffers had been in the line of fire when the assault took place.
Very little is known about an attack on police headquarters in south Dallas early on Saturday morning. According to reports, one gunman (or perhaps multiple gunmen) opened fire on the building with automatic weapons shortly after midnight.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown told reporters that explosives were also found outside the headquarters. While no injuries have been reported and no motive has been established, a standoff between police and a shooter in an armored van continues in a parking lot.
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What We Know About the Shooting
The attack took place in an affluent section of the Texas city, where at least one shooter struck building windows and police car windshields with bullets before taking off in a van. The van also rammed into multiple police cars.
CNN is reporting multiple exchanges of gunfire between police officers and the shooter (or shooters) not only at the police headquarters, but at a second site, the parking lot of a suburban Jack in the Box restaurant, where a standoff is underway. According to Reuters, at least two explosive devices were found outside the building, one of which exploded when a police robot tried to move it.
What We Know About the Shooter
While only one shooter has been confirmed, witnesses say as many as four gunmen participated in Saturday’s attack. Police have noted there are conflicting accounts.
Relaying word from Dallas Police Chief David Brown, the AP wrote that “the suspect driving the van has told officers that he blames police for losing custody of his son and ‘accusing him of being a terrorist.’” The man also claims to have more explosives in his armored van, which is outfitted with gun ports.
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Reuters reports that the suspect has identified himself as James Boulware, but his identity has yet to be confirmed.
This article was originally published at http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/06/an-attack-on-dallas-police-headquarters/395804/?UTM_SOURCE=yahoo
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