Dallas Police Chief David Brown revealed Friday that one of the suspected gunmen allegedly behind the shooting deaths of five police officers said he "wanted to kill white people, especially white officers," the Washington Post reports.
That suspect was eventually killed by police after authorities sent in a "bomb robot" to place a device "where the suspect was" and detonate it. Brown said that authorities decided to take action in order to prevent further risk to officers, NPR reports.
“He said he was upset about the recent police shootings,” Brown said during a Friday morning news conference. “The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”
“This must stop, this divisiveness between police and citizens,” Brown added. “We’re hurting. … Our profession is hurting. Dallas officers are hurting. We are heartbroken.”
Three other suspects are currently in custody, one of them an African-American woman, the Post reports. Authorities have not released any other identifying characteristics of those three suspects. At an earlier press conference, Brown acknowledged that he wasn't sure if there were any more suspects in the horrific attack.
“We still don’t have a complete comfort level that we have all the suspects,” he said.
According to Brown, it is believed that the four suspects were “working together with rifles triangulated at elevated positions at different points in the downtown area where the march ended up going.” Some officers were shot in the back, the chief said.
Brown said investigators were looking into the possibility that the suspects were connected to the protest, which was just beginning to wind down when gunshots rang out.
The chief has contacted the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for help with the investigation.
Read more at the Washington Post and NPR.