4 Officers killed at Dallas protest over Police shootings

dimeji akinloye

July 8, 2016 6:28 AM

According to the Dallas Police Chief, David Brown, the snipers fire "ambush style" upon the officers.

Diamond Reynolds weeps after she recounts the incidents that led to the fatal shooting of her boyfriend Philando Castile by Minneapolis area police during a traffic stop on Wednesday, at a "Black Lives Matter" demonstration, in front of the Governor"s Mansion in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., July 7, 2016.

Four Police officers were on Thursday night, July 7, killed by at least two snipers in Dallas, Texas, United States, AP reports.

The officers reportedly opened fire on the officers during a protest, leaving seven others were injured.

According to the Dallas Police Chief, David Brown, the snipers fire "ambush style" upon the officers.

A suspect who was in a shootout with Dallas SWAT officers was is in custody and a person of interest had surrendered. They said a suspicious package was being secured by a bomb squad, a police statement said.

The incident was said to have occurred around 8:45p.m as hundreds of people were gathered to protest fatal shootings of this week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota.

The protesters had gathered after a Minnesota officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile while he was in a car with a woman and a child in a St. Paul suburb. The aftermath of the shooting was livestreamed in a widely shared Facebook video.

A day earlier, Alton Sterling was shot in Louisiana after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers. That, too, was captured on a cellphone video.

Video footage from the scene showed that protesters were marching along a street in downtown, about half a mile from City Hall, when the shots erupted and the crowd scattered, seeking cover.

Police are still combing the length and breath of the are for the shooters, with helicopters hovering overhead and officers with automatic rifles on the street corners.

READ:

"Everyone just started running,"Devante Odom, 21, told The Dallas Morning News. "We lost touch with two of our friends just trying to get out of there."

Carlos Harris, who lives downtown told the newspaper that the shooters "were strategic. It was tap tap pause. Tap tap pause."

The gunshots in Dallas came amid protests nationwide over the recent police shootings.

dimeji akinloye