Ex-soldier kills 5 officers in Dallas

The sniper who shot 12 police officers in the USA city of Dallas, killing five and injuring many, during a protest decrying police killings of black men this week, has been identified as a former Army reservist equipped for war. While he was in Afghanistan, a female soldier in Johnson’s unit sought a protection order against him, accusing him of sexual harassment and saying he needed mental health counselling, according to Mr Bradford Glendening, the military lawyer assigned to represent him.

He served in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan.

He was a carpentry and masonry specialist, with a rank of private first class, and was awarded the Army Achievement Medal.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown reported that Johnson, a former member of the Army Reserve, said he was upset over recent police shootings of black men and wanted to kill white people.

When officials went to Johnson’s Dallas-area home, they found a stockpile of weapons and bomb-making materials, they said. His parents separated when Johnson was a child, divorcing in 1996, and his father James subsequently married a teacher, Donna Ferrier, who is white.

A nearby parking lot was searched for a “suspicious person”, they said, but no-one was found.

The suspected killer of five police officers during a “Black Lives Matter” protest in Dallas on Thursday was reportedly sent home from Aghanistan for having sexually harrassed a woman.

After the shootings, Johnson later wrote a followup post, in which she tried defending her brother’s character.

Johnson’s July 2 post on the Black Panther Facebook page expressed anger at how white people have treated black people over the years, with references to his ancestors getting beaten, mutilated and killed.

Although Carnegie said the company was aware that Johnson was, as Carnegie put it, “pro-black”, he wasn’t aware of his employee having any affiliations with militant, radical groups. “We must ‘Rally The Troops!’ It is time to visit Louisiana and hold a barbecue”.

Johnson also “liked” the Nation of Islam and the Black Riders Liberation Party, which the center described as “hate groups“.

And in Tennessee, a man accused of shooting indiscriminately at passing cars and police on a highway told investigators he was angry about police violence against African-Americans, authorities said.

In a picture from July 2014, the man believed to be Johnson is wearing military attire.

But it added that members of the public were still able to walk about freely around the building. But, ultimately, Johnson was not discharged in this way, Glendening said.

Seven people, among them three police officers and Taylor, were also injured before the sniper was killed by a remote-controlled bomb.

“There’s Johnson M for Micah”, Krenn said. “I believe the answer is no”, Wolf said.

Israel Cooper, 19, said: “He was upset”. The pair played basketball together in a local park, but Johnson was obsessive. Cooper said Johnson had a “cool vibe, wasn’t really political and seemed educated”. He says, “He would be out there for eight hours”.

Thursday night’s protest was sparked by the killings of CD salesman Alton Sterling, 37, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Tuesday morning, and school cafeteria supervisor Philando Castile, 32, in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, on Wednesday night.

“He felt that people don’t understand the danger of dealing with a protest”, said Rawlings, who spoke to the surviving officer. “I am not justifying what he did, but I see why he did it”, she said. “But then it’s more expected, like ‘I should have known'”.