At least two snipers in Dallas at the #BlackLivesMatter protest have killed four police officers and injured seven others.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that as the protest was about to finish, shots began firing at 9pm on Thursday night. Dallas Police chief David Brown described the events.
“Some were shot in the back. We believe that these suspects were positioning themselves in a way to triangulate on these officers … and planned to injure and kill as many law enforcement officers as they could,” he said.
Two suspects have since been taken into custody surrounding the attacks.
The protest surrounded the deaths of two black men who were killed in police shootings this week – one in Louisiana, one in Minnesota.
The Dallas attack follows support for the #BlackLivesMatter campaign this week from President Barack Obama and singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.
Obama made a speech on the deaths of the two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling at a NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland.
“These are not isolated incidents. They’re symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system,” said Obama.
Beyoncé released a powerful statement on her website and urged her fans to turn ‘anger into action’ on her Instagram. Read the full statement on Beyonce.com.
