5 police officers killed during Dallas protest over police shootings

As demonstrators peacefully marched in places around the country to protest the police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, one protest in Dallas, Texas, was abruptly interrupted by gunfire.

At least two snipers reportedly fired at police officers from elevated positions along the protest route in what police believe to be a coordinated attack, according to Dallas Police Chief David Brown. Eleven officers were shot, five of whom are dead.
According to the Dallas Morning News, hundreds attended a peaceful rally Thursday afternoon. Protesters were heading home when they first heard the gunfire.
Stacey Brown, 30 and Bianca Avery, 34, were standing near Dealey Plaza, according to the newspaper.

"This was peaceful. This was peaceful," Brown told the News. "We were headed back to our cars to go home. But we turned that corner [at Main Street] and all hell broke loose."
"I heard a shot and all of a sudden people are running ... children everywhere, everything," Avery said.

Earlier on Thursday, before the Dallas shootings, President Barack Obama released a statement saying "all Americans should be deeply troubled" by the recent gun violence.
"We've seen such tragedies far too many times," the president wrote in a Facebook post. The shootings are not isolated incidents, Obama said, but "are symptomatic of the broader challenges within our criminal justice system, the racial disparities that appear across the system, year after year, and the resulting lack of trust that exists between law enforcement and too many of the communities they serve."


source:wreg.com