Chief David Brown
Police Chief David Brown said in a press conference at 12:35 a.m. that negotiators are talking to a suspect in the El Centro parking garage. They have exchanged gunfire with the suspect.
The suspect said to police, “The end is near,” and told negotiators bombs are “all over downtown Dallas.” The suspect is threatening to kill more officers.
Brown said several people are in custody, but police aren’t comfortable that they know everyone involved.
Brown said that a woman who was in the area near the parking garage is in custody and is being questioned, and that two people who were carrying bags and left the area of the shootings in a car were stopped near Polk and 67 and have been taken into custody.
Mayor Mike Rawlings are asking that everyone stay away from the crime scene in downtown. Check DallasCityNews.net before going into the downtown area. Much of the area will remain closed off as it remains an active crime scene.
Rawlings said, “It is a heartbreaking morning, to lose these four officers, that proudly served… . We as a city, we as a country, must come together, lock arms and heal the wounds that we all feel from time to time. Words matter, leadership matters. I am proud of our chief.”
No answers yet as to who these shooters are, why they did this, Chief Brown said. “We’re waiting for the suspects to break and let us know what they’re doing,” he said. He also suggested that the way that the suspects positioned themselves indicated “some prior knowledge” as to what route the protest march would take.
Brown and Rawlings left the press conference to visit officers and family at Baylor and Parkland hospitals.
Reporters are talking with family members of the civilian who was injured. The woman, whose last name is Taylor, was attending the protest with her four sons. When the shooting started, they started running. She was shot in the right calf and is in surgery now. She managed to shield on of her sons from the gunfire, but the other three ran in different directions. One was taken to a friend or family member’s apartment. The other two remain locked inside one of the nearby buildings.
Students at El Centro College are still been held inside buildings because the campus has been on lock-down with the active shooter on campus in the parking garage. Passengers are also been held at the downtown Dallas Greyhound Bus Station.
