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Dallas Ambush Suspect Identified As Ex-Army, Killed By Police Bomb Robot

By Jeremy Laukkonen
Published on: 06:22 PST, Jul 8, 2016

One suspect in the deadly Dallas ambush that left five police officers dead has himself been killed, and several others are in police custody after a tense standoff broke into gunfire.

The Dallas ambush suspect has been identified as Micah Johnson, 25, a former U.S. Army reservist who was deployed to Afghanistan between November 2013 and July 2014. According to a report from ABC News, the suspected gunman was a carpentry and masonry specialist in the U.S. Army reserve and was discharged in April 2015.

Dallas police chief David O. Brown revealed at a press conference that officers cornered the suspected sniper on the second floor of an El Centro College building after the shooting. Although a negotiator was able to speak with the suspect for hours, negotiations eventually collapsed into an exchange of gunfire.

At that time, a bomb robot was fitted with an explosive device and deployed to approach the Dallas ambush suspect. When the robot neared the suspected sniper, the bomb was detonated, killing him instantly.

Brown claimed that killing the suspect with the bomb robot was the only option after negotiations broke down.

“Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger,” Brown said.

Brown also dispelled rumors that the ambush suspect had killed himself.

“The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb,” Brown told reporters. “The reporting that the suspect killed himself is not accurate. We confirmed that he is deceased because of the detonation of the bomb.”

According to Brown, the negotiator was able to keep the suspect talking for several hours, during which he made several claims.

“The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter,” Brown said. “He said he was upset about the recent police shootings.”

The deceased ambush suspect also said that he wanted to kill white people — especially white officers — and that he had hidden explosive devices throughout the downtown Dallas area.

Brown says that several other suspects are already in custody, but Johnson claimed that he worked alone and belonged to no groups before he was killed by the bomb robot.

There may still be other suspects in the deadly Dallas ambush at large, as Brown declined to state exactly how many people were involved in the sniper attack.

“We’re going to keep these suspects guessing,” Brown said.

According to Reuters, the Dallas ambush attack was the deadliest event for U.S. police since September 11, 2001. The shooter or shooters injured 12 police officers and two civilians and killed five officers.

The ambush took place at a peaceful Dallas rally and march that was organized in response to the shootings of two unarmed black men earlier this week. Dallas police took part in helping to plan the march, and the officers who were shot were there to protect the marchers, according to Brown.

Prior to the ambush attack, officers even posed for pictures with some of the demonstrators.

In the immediate aftermath of the deadly ambush attack, the Dallas PD tweeted an image of a suspect and asked the public to help identify him. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the man was later identified as Mark Hughes.

Hughes reportedly left the protest and voluntarily surrendered his weapon after the first shots were fired, and sources say he was not involved in the ambush shooting. However, the tweet still hasn’t been removed at this time.

Do you believe it was appropriate for officers to kill the Dallas ambush suspect with a bomb robot, or do you think they might have learned more about the deadly attack if he had lived?

[Photo by Tony Gutierrez/AP Images]

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