Former US Army Reservist Identified as Dallas Gunman

  Five police officers were shot and killed at a protest in Dallas, Texas, Thursday night. Seven other officers and two civilians were wounded in the deadly ambush, said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. The wounded were taken to local hospitals. Most were later released. No links to foreign terrorist groups have been reported. The ambush came the same week as two separate shootings of black men by police officers who are white. Both men died. Images of those shootings were captured on video. They have fueled public anger over the use of deadly force by police officers against minorities.   In Dallas, one suspect said to target whites In Dallas, police said the ambush Thursday night was a “well-planned” attack carried out by several people. The U.S. military has confirmed one of the people is a former Army Reservist who served in Afghanistan. Media reports identified him as Micah Xavier Johnson. Three other people were also detained in connection with the deadly attack. They have yet to be identified. Dallas Police Chief David Brown said police trapped one of the suspects after the attack. Brown said the suspect told a negotiator he wanted “to kill white people, especially white officers." He reportedly said he was acting alone and had no ties with any group. Police set off an explosion that killed the suspect after the negotiations broke down. Police used a bomb robot to set off an explosive device near him, the police chief said. Later Friday, Brown said the investigation showed “this was a well-planned, well thought out, evil tragedy by these suspects. We won’t rest until we bring everyone involved to justice.” Reaction centers on unity President Barack Obama spoke about the attack during a visit to Warsaw, Poland, where he is attending a NATO meeting. He said the shootings were a "vicious, calculated and despicable attack" on officers who were performing their jobs.  The president said police have "an extraordinarily difficult job," and the shootings are "a wretched reminder" of the dangers police face. In Washington, Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke to reporters. She urged unity in the face of the week’s divisive events. She asked Americans to, in her words, “Turn to each other, not against each other.” Lynch’s Justice Department is investigating the two earlier shootings involving police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan also spoke about the Texas shootings from the floor of the House of Representatives. He said, “An attack on the people who protect us is an attack on all of us. Our hearts are with the Dallas Police Department. Our hearts are with the victims, and especially with their loved ones.”   Dallas protest in reaction to two incidents this week About 1,000 people had gathered in downtown Dallas Thursday night to protest the police killings of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana. On Wednesday, a Minneapolis police officer shot and killed 32-year-old Philandro Castile in his car during a traffic stop. The man’s girlfriend and a child were also in the car. The woman recorded part of the incident live on video and posted it to the Facebook social media site. The other police shooting took place Tuesday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alton Sterling was shot several times while being held by police.  Several violent protests have followed cases of police use of deadly force over the past two years. Protests in Baltimore, Maryland, became riots after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a young black man. He died of injuries while being held by police in April 2015. The Governor of Maryland declared a state of emergency and called the National Guard in to ease the violence. And, in August 2014, the killing of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, led to intense protests that lasted for weeks. Concern over these and other incidents led to the spread of the Black Lives Matter movement. It seeks to bring attention to what supports say is disproportionate police use of deadly force against blacks. Groups supporting law enforcement officials want Americans to remember the concerns of police officers and their families. They note the number of law enforcement deaths. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund keeps statistics of officers who have been killed in the line of duty. That group says 124 officers were killed in 2015. I’m John Russell. Fern Robinson, Cindy Saine, Joshua Fatzick and Esha Sarai reported this story for VOANews.com. Mario Ritter adapted the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   ambush – n. hiding and waiting for a target to appear calculated – adj. planned out carefully despicable – adj. very bad, deserving of being denounced disproportionate – adj. not balanced, too much to one side or another

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