Buildings in Downtown Dallas were lit up in blue lights on Friday (July 8) night to pay homage to five police officers killed in a sniper attack the day before.
A black U.S. military veteran of the Afghan war who said he wanted to "kill white people" acted alone in a sniper attack that killed five police officers during a Dallas protest decrying police shootings of black men, officials said on Friday.
Seven other police officers and two civilians were wounded in the ambush in downtown Dallas on Thursday (July 7) night, officials said. Police killed the gunman, identified by authorities as 25-year-old Micah Johnson, with a bomb-carrying robot after cornering him in a parking garage, ending an hours-long standoff.
A search of Johnson's home in the nearby suburb of Mesquite found "bomb-making materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition and a personal journal of combat tactics," Dallas police said in a report on Friday. Police said Johnson had no previous criminal history.
The ambush marked the highest death toll for U.S. police in the line duty from a single event since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The color blue is meant to represent the color of police uniforms in many agencies in the United States.
