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Dallas shootings: Suspect in garage standoff 'was blown up by police'

Police are not confident they have apprehended all suspects

Adam Withnall
Friday 08 July 2016 08:27 BST
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Gunman killed by police detonation

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A suspect in the Dallas police shootings who holed himself up in a multi-story car park was killed by a police bomb after an hours-long standoff.

Police chief David Brown said the suspect had threatened to kill more police and was alternating between exchanging gunfire with officers and attempting negotiations.

When negotiations broke down, Chief Brown said, police sent in a robot armed with an explosive device. It was detonated, and the explosion killed the suspect.

The gunman had spoken to police negotiators about how he “wanted to kill white people, especially white police officers”, and that he was “upset about Black Lives Matter”.

Chief Brown said earlier reports that the suspect had killed himself were not accurate.

Earlier, journalists at the scene of the garage next to El Centro college reported Swat teams were standing down, and several US media outlets reported the suspect had been "neutralised".

Follow latest updates on Dallas shootings in our live blog

Chief Brown said at an earlier press conerence that the suspect told police “the end is coming” and that more were going to be hurt and killed. Brown said the suspect also told police “there are bombs all over the place in this garage and downtown”.

Protesters fleeing scene

“This suspect we are negotiating with for the last 45 minutes has been exchanging with us and has not been very cooperative with the negotiations,” Chief Brown said.

Police said they were questioning two occupants of a Mercedes they had pulled over after the vehicle sped off on a downtown street with a man who threw a camouflaged bag inside the back of the car. A woman was also taken into custody near the garage where the standoff was taking place.

Chief Brown stressed that police were not confident they had apprehended all of those involved in the shooting.

"We are being very careful in our tactics so that we do not injure any of our officers or put them in harm's way," he said. "We still don't have a complete comfort level that we have all the suspects."

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