- Sat Jun 13, 2015 8:49 am
#59201
DALLAS — A lone gunman who riddled Dallas police headquarters with sustained gunfire from an assault rifle and shotgun early Saturday was shot and apparently killed by a police sniper after fleeing in an armored van.
No one was injured in the rampage, despite the gunman — angry over a child custody battle — raking the lobby and second floor of the headquarters from several angles, shattering glass and sending officers scrambling. He also planted explosive devices at the headquarters, rammed a police car and opened fire again before speeding off.
"We are blessed that our officers survived this ordeal," Police Chief David Brown told reporters. "There are bullet holes in squad cars where officers were sitting, bullet holes in the lobby where staff was sitting."
The police chief said the scene was "very helter-skelter for a long while," with the gunman changing magazines and moving to multiple firing positions.
After leading officers on a 10-mile chase, he pulled the vehicle into a parking lot near a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in the town of Hutchins, about 12 miles south of Dallas, Brown said.
After negotiations by cellphone with the gunman broke down, a SWAT team sniper shot him through the windshield. Brown said there was no sign of life from the van after a sniper fired, but that officers refrained from approaching the vehicle until bomb squads could detonate or defuse any possible explosive devices on board.
In an effort to determine the condition of the suspect after the sniper hit him, police later used a rifle to shoot out the windshield to allow them to look inside.
Brown said police had feared the gunman, who had fired repeatedly at officers, would try again and could hit a nearby neighborhood. Negotiations had also deteriorated into "rants" from the gunman — who became "increasingly angry and threatening" — over a child custody issue before talks broke off altogether, police said.
"He expressed that he had C-4 (military grade explosives) on the van," Brown said. "That's our biggest concern. We don't want to call his bluff."
Earlier, police had shot out the van's engine block to keep the suspect from fleeing again.
Police said the heavily armed attacker — who called 911 in a "rant" after opening fire on the building in downtown Dallas — had used an assault weapon then a shotgun in an attempt to hit officers.
He said officers obtained the gunman's cellphone number from his 911 call and attempted to negotiate with him as the car was parked in Hutchins.
"He got angry during negotiations, would hang up and stop talking, rant for awhile and not really negotiate," Brown said. "At some point negotiations just ceased on his end."
The police chief said at one point the suspect charged that police "took his child" and "accused him of being a terrorist."
No one was injured in the rampage, despite the gunman — angry over a child custody battle — raking the lobby and second floor of the headquarters from several angles, shattering glass and sending officers scrambling. He also planted explosive devices at the headquarters, rammed a police car and opened fire again before speeding off.
"We are blessed that our officers survived this ordeal," Police Chief David Brown told reporters. "There are bullet holes in squad cars where officers were sitting, bullet holes in the lobby where staff was sitting."
The police chief said the scene was "very helter-skelter for a long while," with the gunman changing magazines and moving to multiple firing positions.
After leading officers on a 10-mile chase, he pulled the vehicle into a parking lot near a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in the town of Hutchins, about 12 miles south of Dallas, Brown said.
After negotiations by cellphone with the gunman broke down, a SWAT team sniper shot him through the windshield. Brown said there was no sign of life from the van after a sniper fired, but that officers refrained from approaching the vehicle until bomb squads could detonate or defuse any possible explosive devices on board.
In an effort to determine the condition of the suspect after the sniper hit him, police later used a rifle to shoot out the windshield to allow them to look inside.
Brown said police had feared the gunman, who had fired repeatedly at officers, would try again and could hit a nearby neighborhood. Negotiations had also deteriorated into "rants" from the gunman — who became "increasingly angry and threatening" — over a child custody issue before talks broke off altogether, police said.
"He expressed that he had C-4 (military grade explosives) on the van," Brown said. "That's our biggest concern. We don't want to call his bluff."
Earlier, police had shot out the van's engine block to keep the suspect from fleeing again.
Police said the heavily armed attacker — who called 911 in a "rant" after opening fire on the building in downtown Dallas — had used an assault weapon then a shotgun in an attempt to hit officers.
He said officers obtained the gunman's cellphone number from his 911 call and attempted to negotiate with him as the car was parked in Hutchins.
"He got angry during negotiations, would hang up and stop talking, rant for awhile and not really negotiate," Brown said. "At some point negotiations just ceased on his end."
The police chief said at one point the suspect charged that police "took his child" and "accused him of being a terrorist."
- By johnforbes
- By brandon