The suspected Dallas gunman was upset about recent incidents of police shooting black people, and wanted to kill whites, especially white officers, Police Chief David Brown said, adding that the suspect claimed he wasn’t part of any group and acted alone.
READ MORE: Snipers shoot 12 officers, killing 5, during demonstrations in Dallas
The suspect was identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, police said, according to reports. He told police he was an Army veteran.
The snipers were “working together with rifles, triangulating at elevated positions in different points in the downtown area where the march ended up going,” Brown said initially.
“We are leaving every motive on the table on why this happened and how this happened."
“He was upset about Black Lives Matter,” Brown said at news conference. “He was upset about” the shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota. “He wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”
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Johnson served as a private in the US Army Reserve, and was deployed in Afghanistan as part of an engineering company between November 2013 and July 2014, the Daily Beast reported citing US defense officials.
After Johnson was identified, his sister Nicole said she was shutting down her Facebook page because the media was “stealing my private words, photos and harassing my friends.”
“White [people] have and will continue to kill us off,” Nicole Johnson had posted on Wednesday. “The only difference is they serve the system hiding behind that blue suit and get off easy murdering civilians. Everything coming into the light and [I] for one think these cops need to get a taste of the life we now fear.”
The suspect, who was later killed during the standoff, told negotiators that he wasn’t affiliated with any group and was acting alone, according to Brown.
He added that the suspect was killed by a bomb robot used to detonate explosives near his location. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings earlier said the police killed the suspect in a standoff, using explosives to “blast him out.”
"We had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect. We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot," Brown said.
The police chief confirmed that three other suspects involved in the shooting are currently in police custody.
"We're hurting, our profession is hurting... we are heartbroken,” he added.
The violence started on Thursday night during a peaceful protest in Dallas over the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota. At least four attackers, holed up in a downtown garage, used sniper rifles against police officers.
The incident then spread to the streets, where major corporations, restaurants and courthouses have premises. Police believe the attack was coordinated.
Two officers injured in the shooting are in surgery while three remain in a critical condition, according to KTRK news. The condition of the sixth injured officer is unknown. One of the injured officers is mother to a 10-year-old girl.