Background Edit

Events Edit

[15]

1. Johnson parks SUV and fires towards Main Street

2. Senior Corporal Lorne Ahrens, Officer Patrick Zamarippa, and Officer Michael Krol are killed. Several other officers and a civilian were injured.

3. Johnson chases down and kills DART Police Officer Brent Thompson.

4. Johnson attempts but fails to enter the college.

5. Johnson enters the college from Elm Street (location unknown)

6. Johnson goes to second floor, runs into a dead end, and shoots towards a

7. 7-Eleven where Sergeant Michael Smith is shot and killed. Map of events.1. Johnson parks SUV and fires towards Main Street2. Senior Corporal Lorne Ahrens, Officer Patrick Zamarippa, and Officer Michael Krol are killed. Several other officers and a civilian were injured.3. Johnson chases down and kills DART Police Officer Brent Thompson.4. Johnson attempts but fails to enter the college.5. Johnson enters the college from Elm Street (location unknown)6. Johnson goes to second floor, runs into a dead end, and shoots towards a 7-Eleven 7. 7-Eleven where Sergeant Michael Smith is shot and killed. Most of the events happened in the streets and buildings around El Centro College, which forms a city block composed of multiple buildings. The block is bordered by Main Street on the south where the protest march was taking place; Lamar Street to the east from where Johnson initiated the shooting spree; and Elm Street to the north where Johnson eventually entered the college.[15] Main Street shootings Edit Around 8:58 p.m. Johnson parked his SUV sideways on Lamar Street, in front of the east entrance to the college, at Building A, and left the vehicle emergency lights blinking.[15][16] At the time, the street had been cleared out in anticipation of the protest.[16] Taking cover at street level, he began shooting at groups of police and protesters who were gathered on Main Street.[3][17] Johnson was believed to have talked to three of the officers he shot before he first opened fire.[16] Three officers were killed in the initial gunfire, while at least three others and a civilian were injured.[18] Eleven officers fired back.[19] During the shooting, officers, unaware where the shots were coming from, scrambled to block intersections and were exposed to gunfire as a result.[20] Immediately afterwards, Johnson made his way north on Lamar Street, encountering Officer Brent Thompson along the way.[18] A civilian recorded video of the encounter from his hotel balcony on Lamar Street. The video showed Johnson, clad in tactical clothing and armed with a rifle, loading his rifle and firing indiscriminately to draw officers near his position. When Thompson approached a corner, Johnson engaged him in a gunfight, forcing Thompson to take cover behind a concrete pillar. Johnson fired towards one side of the pillar, then ran over to the other side of the pillar to flank Thompson and shot him multiple times from behind, killing him.[21] El Centro College shootout Edit Johnson, now injured during the firefight, attempted to enter the Lamar Street entrance of the college by shooting out the glass door but was unable to make his way in.[15] He wounded two campus police officers who were near the doorway inside the building. One was shot in the stomach underneath his bulletproof vest (with the bullet not being discovered until three weeks later[22]), while the other was hit by flying glass in the legs.[23] Johnson then made his way to Elm Street where he shot out another glass door and entered the college unseen; he then made his way to Building B.[24] Hearing the shattering glass, one of the injured campus officers, Corporal Bryan Shaw, made his way through the building and discovered a trail of blood leading to a stairwell. Accompanied by another police officer, Shaw entered the stairwell and was met with a hail of gunfire coming from above. Unable to see Johnson, he held his fire and retreated with the other officer.[15][25] Afterwards, Johnson made his way along a mezzanine between the school's second-floor dining area and third-floor library, but came onto a dead end of windows facing down onto Elm Street. He shot out multiple windows and fired repeatedly at officers on Elm Street. He hit Michael Smith, a police officer standing in front of a 7-Eleven, killing him and shattering the store-front glass. Officers began entering the college, sealing escape routes from the building, and evacuating students and teachers in the building, including those on a floor above Johnson, through a different stairwell.[15][16][18] Approaching Johnson on the second floor near the library,[24] officers found him secured behind a corner firing intermittently.[26] He was in an area filled with offices and the school's computer servers, with only two doors leading to where he was positioned, and a hallway about 30 feet (9.1 m) long separating him from SWAT members.[16][24] At least 200 gunshots were believed to have been fired by Johnson and SWAT officers in that area during the standoff.[24] Standoff and shooter's death Edit Officers opened negotiations for surrender but Johnson said he would speak to black police officers only. Johnson stated that he had acted alone and was not part of any group. According to Chief Brown, Johnson appeared delusional during his standoff; "We had negotiated with him for about two hours, and he just basically lied to us, playing games, laughing at us, singing, asking how many did he get and that he wanted to kill some more." By about 2:30 a.m.,[27] Chief Brown saw no possibility of negotiating further[28] and made the decision to use a bomb disposal remote control vehicle armed with about 1 pound (0.45 kilograms) of C-4 explosive. The plan was to move the robot to a point against a wall facing Johnson and then detonate the explosives.[25][29][30][31][32][33] Johnson saw the robot approaching and fired repeatedly at it in an attempt to stop it.[24] However, the robot exploded as intended, killing Johnson immediately. The robot, while sustaining damage to its extended arm, was still functional.[34] It was later discovered that Johnson scrawled the letters "RB" in his own blood while in the college, apparently after being wounded while making his way up a stairwell.[35][36] The meaning of "RB" and other markings made by Johnson was unclear, and investigators subsequently attempted to discern its meaning.[35][36][37] Chief Brown said that during negotiations, Johnson declared he had placed explosives in downtown Dallas.[17][38] A sweep of downtown Dallas found no presence of explosives.[8]

Victims Edit

Perpetrator Edit

Investigation Edit

Aftermath Edit

Reactions Edit

See also Edit

Notes Edit

^ [144] While it was once standard practice to pair officers in patrol vehicles, budget cuts and other staffing demands prompted many police departments to implement more single-officer patrols.