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Dallas Police Shooting: Video Released Of One Suspect Exchanging Gunfire, Shooting Police At Black Lives Matter Protest Rally

By Danny Cox
Published on: 17:06 PST, Jul 7, 2016

Chaos broke out this evening in Dallas during a Black Lives Matter rally and protest in the streets as suspects opened fire. The suspects opened fire on Dallas Police Department officers, and as of this writing, 11 had been shot and four of them killed. One witness by the name of Ismael Dejesus was in a hotel across the street from where one of the shooters was standing while exchanging gunfire with officers and caught it on video.

UPDATE at 1:41 a.m. EST

One suspect is still in a standoff with cops in a downtown garage. Three people are in custody and one of them is a female. The other two came from a vehicle that had been stopped after a small car chase on the interstate. Suspects are not cooperating and will give up no information about the person in the garage or what they are doing.

Chief David Brown said that it is believed the suspects had knowledge of the rally route in the downtown area since it was such an organized attack. It is not known if the suspects had connections to the rally or the organization of it.

UPDATE at 1:37 a.m. EST

Dallas Police Chief David Brown said at a press conference that a suspect in custody has said things about wanting to take out more officers and that numerous bombs have been planted all around the downtown area.

The downtown area is still an active crime scene and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is asking people who may work in that area to stay out of it and stay home. As of now, it will remain an active crime scene until they have searched everything.

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Ismael Dejesus spoke with CNN who had reported a lot of what went on this evening in Dallas, and the witness gave a lot of information regarding the above video.

Dejesus said that the suspect was standing at the bottom of the building and between a couple of the pillars for protection. The gunman was wearing tactical pants and a tactical green shirt with what appeared to be body armor underneath.

It wasn’t entirely clear what race the suspect was from his vantage point. Dejesus did say it looked as if the gunman was holding an AR-15 assault rifle and had numerous magazines on his person so he could fire and reload.

At one point, Dejesus said that one officer did try to sneak up on the gunman and exchanged some gunfire with him. The gunman fired three times, according to Dejesus, hitting the officer once which caused him to fall to the ground.

Dejesus says at that point, the gunman walked up to the fallen officer and fired a few more shots into him.

Ismael Dejesus did say that he believed there to be some kind of terrorist connection to the way the gunfire fight was carried out. As of now, no-one with law enforcement has been able to confirm nor deny this being any of kind of terrorist act.

UPDATE – 1:25 a.m. EST

There are a lot of reports coming out now that things have quieted down a lot in the downtown area. A lot of police presence is still around as many officers are walking the streets and vehicles still line them.

As reported by the New York Times, there was one man who was originally seen as a suspect by the law enforcement. A picture of the man was making the rounds of social media and it showed him wearing camouflage and carrying an assault rifle.

Since that time, the man did turn himself in and he is being seen as a “person of interest.” It has been reported that at the time of the gunfire, he was captured on numerous online videos which show him trying to find safety.

It has also been reported that he did turn his weapon over to authorities right after the shootings happened.

Early on, Chief David O. Brown said that the entire incident was carried out by at least two snipers who fired down into the Black Lives Matter demonstration. Until that time, the rally had been extremely peaceful and it is not believed that anyone there for the rally had anything to do with what took place..

“Some (police officers) were shot in the back. We believe the these suspects were positioning themselves in a way to triangulate on these officers.”

The peaceful rally included people of all ages and races as they gathered to have their thoughts and messages heard.

The Dallas Police shooting late on Thursday night is just the latest frightening incident in the past few weeks and months. It has been less than a month since the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people and the latest situations in Baton Rouge and Minnesota have kept battle lines drawn. Ismael Dejesus is just one of the many who witnessed the horrific situation on Thursday night, and his video happened to capture only part of the tragedy.

[Photo by Dallas PD via Getty Images]

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