Authorities: Tenn. highway gunman motivated by police shootings

“Preliminarily, the investigation reveals Scott may have targeted individuals and officers after being troubled by recent incidents involving African-Americans and law enforcement officers in other parts of the country”, the TBI said. Later Thursday night, 12 officers were shot in Dallas during a Black Lives Matter protest by a man who police say declared he was angry about police shootings of black men and wanted to exterminate whites.

The Friday ambushes followed the Dallas attack late Thursday, when a black US military veteran of the Afghan war who said he wanted to “kill white people” opened fire at a protest, killing five police officers and wounding seven others plus two civilians.

The suspect was shot by the officers and is being treated at a hospital.

In Tennessee, Scott was armed with an assault-style rifle and a pistol, TIME reported.

Like the terrorist attack in Dallas, this attack clearly meets the federal definition of domestic terrorism. A newspaper carrier was killed and four other people were wounded when a man opened fire on cars traveling along a parkway in East Tennessee early Thursday morning.

FISA defines “international terrorism” in a almost identical way, replacing “primarily” outside the USA with “totally” outside the U.S. 50 U.S.C. § 1801 (c).

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting local and state authorities with the investigation.

A neighbor of the black Army veteran accused of opening fire on a Tennessee highway said he will never believe the incident was motivated by racial tension over police violence. He had yet to be charged Friday afternoon while receiving treatment in serious but stable condition.

The hotel’s front desk clerk, Deborah Watts, was also seriously injured during the shooting spree and remains in serious but stable condition.

He then began to fire at passing vehicles.

The TBI identified her as Jennifer Rooney, a Bristol Herald Courier newspaper carrier killed in her auto on Volunteer Parkway.

Another person, David Whitman Davis, sustained minor injuries at the scene of the shooting due to “flying glass”.