Dallas police say a deadly ambush Thursday that killed five police officers during a protest was a “well-planned” attack carried out by several people.

The U.S. military has confirmed one of the people, widely reported in U.S. media to be Micah Xavier Johnson, is a former Army Reservist who served in Afghanistan. Three other people, who have not been identified, are also detained in connection with the attack.

Cornered by police after the ambush, a suspect — believed to be Johnson — told a negotiator he wanted “to kill white people, especially white (police) officers,” and said he was acting alone and was unaffiliated with any groups, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said during a news conference Friday.

The suspect was then killed by police in an intentional explosion after talks broke down. Police used a bomb robot to detonate an unspecified explosive device near him, the police chief said.

Later in the day, Brown said the investigation, however, has “revealed to us this was a well planned, well thought out, evil tragedy by these suspects.”

“We won’t rest until we bring everyone involved to justice,” Brown added.[xyz-ihs snippet=”adsense-body-ad”]

Ambush

The attack, which city officials labeled an “ambush,” happened toward the end of a demonstration against the killing of two black men by white police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana earlier this week. The suspect told police he was “upset” about recent police shootings, Brown said.

Seven other police officers and two civilians were wounded in the ambush, the city’s mayor said Friday morning.

The suspect told police they would eventually find bombs planted in the city; a suspicious package has been secured by the city’s bomb squad near the site of the attack.

City officials originally said multiple “snipers” were involved in the attack, but details of how many people were part of the ambush remain unclear. The Dallas police chief said one of the detained suspects is a woman. The other two suspects being interviewed, Brown said, were seen with camouflage bags, prompting officers to follow their car.

Person of interest

Police had issued a photograph of an armed black man in camouflage dress who attended the demonstration as “a person of interest” in Thursday’s shooting. The man later turned himself in to authorities, who determined he was not involved in the shootings.  

Parts of downtown Dallas remained cordoned off Friday as law enforcement officials investigate the shooting, which marks the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has asked people who work in the downtown area where the shootings occurred to stay away Friday.

Obama, Lynch condemn shootings

U.S. President Barack Obama called the shootings a “vicious, calculated and despicable attack” on officers who were performing their jobs.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the Department of Justice will provide any assistance needed in the Dallas investigation.

Video footage of the shootings shared widely on social media showed people fleeing the sound of semi-automatic gunfire. One recording showed a gunman shooting an officer.

About 1,000 people attended the Dallas rally to protest the shooting deaths of two men in Minnesota and Louisiana by police officers earlier this week. Both incidents, captured on video, led to demonstrations in many U.S. cities. The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Louisiana case.

Louisiana, Minnesota shootings

Police fatally shot Alton Sterling, 37, outside a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, convenience store on Tuesday; Philando Castile was killed at close range during a traffic stop in St. Paul, Minnesota on Wednesday as his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter sat in the car with him.

Quinyetta McMillon, the mother of one of Sterling’s children, issued a statement Friday denouncing the Dallas police killings.

“We wholeheartedly reject the reprehensible acts of violence that were perpetrated against members of the Dallas Police Department,” the statement says. “Our hearts break for the families of the officers who were lost as they protected protesters and residents alike during a rally.”

The shooting deaths of Sterling and Castile are the latest incidents in a string of police shootings in the U.S. that are widely viewed as examples of police using excessive force against minorities.

The Washington Post, which last year began tracking the number of people fatally shot by police, reports 509 deaths so far this year – an increase of 27 over the same period last year.

In response to the shooting deaths of Sterling and Castile, protesters rallied around the Black Lives Matter campaign across the country this week to counter what they see as disproportionate police violence against minorities.

Source: VOA

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