Dallas police officers check a newspaper machine as they walk down Belleview Street a block away from police headquarters to search the area Saturday. Multiple gunmen toting automatic weapons opened fire on officers outside Dallas Police headquarters early Saturday morning, before fleeing in what was described as an armored van, according to Dallas Police Chief David Brown. | AP
DALLAS (AP) —At least one gunman opened fire on officers outside police headquarters in Dallas early Saturday, spraying squad cars with bullets before fleeing in an armored van and being shot by a police sniper, reports said, adding that bombs were planted in the area.
Witnesses described seeing as many as three other suspects taking part in the attack, but police Chief David Brown said at a news conference that conflicting accounts made it difficult to determine how many people may have been involved. He later said they believed only one gunman was involved and that he did not have links to terrorism.
Despite a hail of gunshots, including some that hit police vehicles, nobody was wounded, he said.
Brown told a news conference that the shootout began about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. He said at least one suspect fled the scene in a van that rammed a police cruiser. Officers pursued the van to a parking lot in Hutchins, a Dallas suburb, where a SWAT team surrounded it before shooting the driver, Brown said.
They had been speaking to a man inside who identified himself as James Boulware and who said he blames police for losing custody of his son and “accusing him of being a terrorist.”
The gunman also said he had explosives in the van, which appeared to be outfitted with gun ports in the sides.
Brown said police didn’t know if there was anyone else in the van, but that witnesses reported seeing as many as four people taking part in the attack, including some who may have been strategically positioned in elevated positions. Witnesses told police that one suspect may have failed to enter the van before it sped off, according to Brown.
Police said they found two explosive devices near the headquarters building and cleared them away. One of the devices, a pipe bomb, exploded when a police robot attempted to move it. Another, which was under a police vehicle, was detonated by a bomb squad, according to the police department.
Brown told reporters that a motive for the attack was not yet known, but he also said there had been threats and attacks on police elsewhere in the country in the past few months.
The van stopped in a fast food restaurant parking lot in the city of Hutchins, some 10 miles (16 km) south of Dallas, where there was another exchange of gunfire. Police said they surrounded the van and managed to disable it with a high-powered rifle, before shooting and apparently killing the driver.
Brown told reporters at the early morning news conference that the suspect had said that police had taken his child and had accused him of being a terrorist. The police chief said that the man then threatened to “blow us up.”
Several bags were found scattered around police headquarters, two of which had explosives inside, police said. Another suspicious package was found in a dumpster near a different police station in the city, according to police. They also said they intend to blow up the van as a precaution.
Nearby residents were evacuated, Brown said.
A video of the shooting on social media showed a police officer approaching a black van with a flashlight as two other police cruisers pulled up behind the vehicle. The officer abruptly turned and ran away and then a volley of gunshots could be heard.
In another video, the van could be seen ramming a police cruiser before gunfire rang out again and the vehicle drove off.
The Dallas Morning News reported that police in Paris, some 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Dallas, had arrested a James Boulware in 2013 after he had obtained firearms, ammunition and body armor and threatened to attack his family, schools, and churches.
Whether the two incidents involved the same individual could not be confirmed.
Anita Grendahl was asleep in her seventh-floor apartment in a high-rise across from police headquarters when she heard gunshots loud enough to wake her up over a white noise machine in her room.
"We just woke up to a few pops and thought somebody was on my balcony, and then looked outside and saw the van crash into the car," she said.
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