Dallas Snipers Shoot Up Peaceful Protests

If your head is spinning right now, you’re not the only one. Here’s what we know so far about the aftermath of a deadly shooting during a peaceful anti-police brutality protest in Dallas.

Thursday evening snipers opened fire on peaceful protestors and police officers in downtown Dallas. Witnesses have said they saw two snipers on rooftops.

CBS News is reporting that 12 officers were shot with five of them being killed. ABC News has reported that one civilian was injured.

Both outlets have reported that Dallas police have several suspects in custody including two that they found on the highway after they threw a suspicious package out of their Mercedes-Benz. Officers killed one other suspect with a “robotic explosive device” after failed negotiations. One other suspect is in custody after shooting themselves. That suspect delivered a note saying “the end is near.”

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Dallas police also made the folly of plastering the face of protestor Mark Hughes on their Twitter page calling him a suspect.

Hughes was spotted carrying an assault rifle during the protest. Texas is an open carry state and Hughes says that he was simply expressing his right to bear arms. He was taken into custody, questioned and then released after being cleared of any wrong doing. The court of public opinion however has already claimed him as guilty and he has been receiving death threats ever since. He says that the Dallas police department has yet to apologize or step up to publicly clear his name.

Police suspect that the attack was indeed planned. Here are some other details that have emerged via CNN.

— At least 10 police officers were shot by snipers during the protests, Dallas police Chief David Brown said.

— Police negotiated and exchanged gunfire with a suspect for hours at a parking garage in downtown Dallas. That suspect is dead, a law enforcement official told CNN. The official did not say how the suspect died.

— “The suspect told our negotiators that the end is coming,” Brown said. The suspect at the garage also told negotiators more officers were going to get hurt, and that bombs had been planted all over downtown.

— Police found no explosives during primary and secondary sweeps of the area, Dallas police Maj. Max Geron said Friday morning on Twitter.

— Two of the shooters were snipers who fired “ambush-style” from an “elevated position.

— Officers killed include one officer with DART, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit agency, which operates buses and commuter rail in the city and surrounding suburbs.