Suspect Dead after Gun, Bomb Attack on Dallas Police HQ
A man sprayed gunfire and planted several bombs at Dallas police headquarters in a rampage that came to a brutal end when snipers shot him dead after several terrifying hours Saturday.
Police said they were "blessed" that nobody was hurt and ruled out any connection to terrorism in the one-man assault that saw gunfire echo around the darkened streets of the sprawling Texas city and left destruction in its wake.
Family of the suspect told U.S. media he was "very delusional" and that the violence had been triggered by a custody battle for his son.
The night of violence began around 12:30 am (0530 GMT) when a man in an armoured van rammed into police squad cars at Dallas police headquarters and opened fire.
Shots rang out from several different locations, leading police initially to believe multiple gunmen were involved, before they established the attacker was acting alone.
The mayhem came to a bloody and abrupt end in a restaurant parking lot when SWAT police fatally shot the man through the windshield of his van shortly before dawn.
"We're blessed that our officers survived this ordeal," Dallas Police Chief David Brown said.
"There are bullet holes in squad cars where officers were sitting. There are bullet holes in the front lobby where staff was sitting."
He described how the man, who gave his name as James Boulware, fired multiple shots at the police headquarters, pausing to reload and apparently using an assault rifle and shotgun.
He "meant to kill officers and took time to discharge that weapon multiple times to accomplish their wanting to harm our officers", Brown added.
- 'Very delusional' -
Shortly after, police chased the van to Hutchins, a suburb south of Dallas, where officers surrounded the armoured vehicle and more shots were traded. Several bullets hit police cars but, again, no officers were injured.
Officers tried but failed to negotiate with the man.
"He looked at the police as taking his son," the suspect's father, Jim Boulware, said during an interview with local television affiliate NBCDFW.
He told the station that his son had mowed his lawn just hours before going on the rampage, and that he had purchased the van online last week in Georgia.
The man's mother, meanwhile, told the station that her son was mentally ill, "heard voices" and talked to himself.
He had been arrested in 2013 for choking his mother "to the point of unconsciousness", police told the channel.
"We tried to get him mental help numerous times, but the system failed him, because he was declared 'sane.' He was very delusional. It was very obvious," the family said in a statement, according to NBC.
Another NBC affiliate, KTEN, said the man had previously threatened to kill adult members of his family and shoot up schools and churches, citing a police source.
But police chief Brown said the suspect "doesn't show to be in our databases on any terrorism watch list or anything like that, so it may have just been a rant".
The Dallas Police Association, which represents officers in the city, tweeted that the man had "three family violence cases against him. (He) was very disgruntled against law enforcement and the criminal justice system."
After the attack the association warned all officers to be on their guard and police ramped up security at other law enforcement facilities in Dallas as a precautionary measure.
- Explosives robot -
At 4:40 am Saturday, police sent in an explosives robot to examine a bag that had been found back at the police headquarters. The bag blew up as the robot tried to move it, damaging several cars.
Brown earlier said other pipe bombs had been found in one of four duffle bags that were "dispersed throughout the front and side of police headquarters".
Around the same time, following attempts to negotiate with the man, snipers used a powerful .50-calibre rifle to disable the van's engine block, then they shot him about half an hour later.
Police sent in a bomb disposal robot to examine the vehicle and determine whether he was dead. They also carried out a controlled blast to render any explosives in the van inert.
"You've watched it on TV where it's happened in New York, California, Utah and different other places but never here at home like this," witness Glenn Coleman said.
In November, police shot and killed a man in the Texas state capital Austin after he opened fire at several buildings including the police headquarters.
Source: Agence France Presse
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