Dallas police chief David Brown gave a statement Friday updating the public on the horrific killing of five police officers in the city the night before, discussing the comments made by a suspect who was killed by a law enforcement robot bomb.
Brown said the suspect was upset about recent police shootings of African Americans and expressed a desire to kill white people, particularly white police officers. Three other suspects are in custody and are not cooperating with police, according to reports.
Brown added that the police department was "hurting" and "heartbroken" and asked for the public’s support as the families of the slain officers grieve their losses.
The full statement is below:
DAVID BROWN: We’re hurting. Our profession is hurting. Dallas officers are hurting. We are heartbroken. There are no words to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city. All I know is that this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens. To update you on what’s transpired since we last spoke, let me walk through the stand-off that had occurred, that was occurring at El Centro on the second floor, the college there in downtown Dallas.
We cornered one suspect, and we tried to negotiate for several hours. Negotiations broke down. We had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect. We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was. Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb. The reporting that the suspect killed himself is not accurate. We’ve confirmed that he’s been deceased because of the detonation of the bomb.
Our hostage negotiator did an exceptional job getting this suspect to talk before he died during the hours of negotiating that eventually broke down. Now, I want to share with you some of the comments from the suspect. The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter. He said he was upset about the recent police shootings. The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers. The suspect stated he will eventually—that we will eventually find the IEDs. The suspect stated he was not affiliated with any groups, and he stated that he did this alone. The suspect said other things that—a part of this investigation so that we can make sure that everyone associated with this tragic event is brought to justice, so as the mayor said, we won’t expand on—any further on what other suspects we have interviewed or looked at or their status until we get further into this investigation and get closer to a conclusion of what and who are all involved.
But let me just say just some closing comments about Dallas police officers and DART police officers, some of the bravest men and women you’d ever want to be associated with. You see video footage after video footage of them running toward gunfire from an elevated position with no chance to protect themselves and to put themselves in harm’s way to make sure citizens can get to a place of security. So please join me in applauding these brave men and women who do this job under great scrutiny, under great vulnerability, who literally risk their lives to protect our democracy.
We don’t feel much support most days. Let’s not make today most days. Please, we need your support to be able to protect you from men like these who carried out this tragic, tragic event. Pray for these families. I spoke with the families of the deceased and the injured. They are not having a good time trying to deal, absorb this, trying to understand why, and they need your prayers. So please join us in helping us comfort the grieving officers’ families, and I trust that soon, because we’re working very diligently in processing the crime scene to find evidence to bring any other suspects to justice that were a part of this. But please pray for our strength through this trying time. Thank you.