A crazed gunman armed with an automatic weapon and a shotgun fired on officers outside Dallas Police Headquarters early Saturday morning before he was believed killed by a police sniper following an hours-long standoff.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown said at a press conference hours later that the gunman ranted in a 911 call after the attack about killing cops and came within seconds of doing so in the case of several officers.
We barely survived the intent of this suspect
He said it was extremely fortunate no officers were hurt.
“Some officers say we were lucky, I believe we’re blessed that our officers survived this ordeal,” the chief told reporters.
Investigators found a package containing pipe bombs near the headquarters building and the suspect told police he had C-4 explosives in his armored van, Brown said. The package exploded as an Explosive Ordinance Robot picked it up. A robot found two pipe bombs in the van after the suspect was believed killed.
Brown described a harrowing scene at police headquarters when the gunman pulled up around 12:30 a.m. and began firing, first with an assault rifle and then with a shotgun.
Bullets struck police squad cars, the inside of the building’s lobby and a second floor office. Brown said one officer avoided getting shot because he had just left his desk to get a soda.
“This suspect meant to kill officers and took time to discharge that weapon multiple times to accomplish his wanting to harm our officers,” Brown said.
