The suspect who used an armored car in an attack against Dallas Police Department headquarters early Saturday morning, and was killed by a police sniper after a police chase, had previously attacked family members, and threatened churches and schools. He had a history of criminal violence, and his mother said he was suffering from mental illness. His father said that his son had just reached a breaking point as a a result of a custody dispute over his son.
Breitbart Texas reported that James Lance Boulware used his “Zombie Apocalypse Assault Vehicle” during the rampage Saturday. The suspect bought the vehicle in Georgia just last week.
Boulware’s mother, Jeannine Hammond, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that her son was mentally ill and “heard voices.”
Boulware was arrested in 2013 for choking his mother. He also strangled his uncle “to the point of unconsciousness” after he intervened to pull the mother from her son’s clutches.
In the affidavit for an arrest warrant, Hammond said she had to hit Boulware on the head and back with a laptop computer to try to stop him from strangling his uncle. (A copy of the arrest warrant is attached at the end of this article.)
In the arrest warrant affidavit, the suspect’s mother stated under oath that “the suspect talks to himself quite frequently and appears delusional, but also said that he is not taking any medications.”
The domestic violence began that day when Boulware was ranting about religion, Jews, and Christians and his mother told Boulware that he was “going to hell.”
The same afternoon, Boulware’s brother, who lives in Paris, Texas, called the Paris Police Department and said that Boulware had gone home and removed several guns, rifles, body armor, and several boxes of ammunition from the premises.
Family members told officers that he had made comments recently about “shooting up schools and churches.”
According to a report by NBC KTEN in 2013, Paris Police Chief Bob Hundley said “He was going to just kill all the adult members of the family, and then that’s when he made the comment he may shoot-up some churches and schools.”
A man who identified himself as Boulware’s brother Andrew said, “He had been talking about the schools and churches being soft targets, being easy targets because no one in them was armed.”
The Paris PD sent out a Teletype notice to lookout for Boulware, and schools in the area were put in “soft lockdown.” Boulware was later arrested near a pizza shop in Paris without incident. He was heavily armed.
Boulware was arrested for committing bodily injury against a family member, and assaulting a family member by strangulation.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown told the Dallas Morning News on Saturday that Boulware said he was going to blow up police because they “took his child and accused him of being a terrorist.”
As reported by NBC5 News in Dallas, the police chief said there were ongoing issues related to a custody dispute over his son as a result of his having three family violence cases.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown said that Boulware had made threats against judges on social media. He said they “have taken steps to ensuring safety of judges who suspect threatened before.”
“We’ve been dealing with this for a long time,” said Boulware’s mother.
Jimmy Lee Boulware, the suspect’s father, said “Every one of us have a breaking point” and his son “looked at the police as taking his son.”
While the senior Boulware said he did not blame the police, he broke down and declared, “Our society can’t keep pushing people… keep taking children away…”
Mr. Boulware said his son had sold his house and had no place to stay, so he was staying with a friend.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served the state of Texas as a prosecutor and associate family court judge. Follow her on Twitter@LanaShadwick2