Dallas (AFP) – The main shooting suspect in the deadly ambush on Dallas police was a US Army reservist and Afghanistan veteran who apparently supported violent black militant movements.
On the Facebook page attributed to Micah Johnson, the 25-year-old widely identified as the gunman, he appears with his right arm raised in the tight fist reminiscent of the black power movement of decades ago in America.
Johnson, who is black, wears a colorful, loose-fitting African style tunic against the backdrop of the red, black and green Pan-African flag, which became popular during the black liberation drive of the 1960s in the United States.
Dallas police say the gunman staged a furious ambush-style attack Thursday night in Dallas at a rally held to protest this week’s fatal shooting of two black men by police in other states.
Five police were shot dead and seven were wounded, as were two civilians.
The shooter, who told police he acted alone, was killed by a bomb carried by a police robot device after an hours-long standoff with the authorities.
While negotiating with police, he said he was acting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and that he wanted to kill white people, particularly police officers.
At some point Friday, Johnson’s Facebook page was taken down from the social media giant. But screen shots of it show several photos posted by Johnson and other information about him.
Another photo is of a black and white drawing of a fist and the words black power in capital letters.
– Afghan war vet –
A resident of the Dallas area, Johnson served six years as a private in the army reserve and was in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014, the Army said. It said he was a carpentry and masonry specialist.
On his Facebook page, his “likes” include a number of organizations listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center civil rights, which studies such movements in the United States.
They include the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) and the Nation of Islam, both known for expressing virulently anti-Semitic and anti-white views, the SPLC said in a statement.
Another of his “likes” is a group called the African American Defense League.
One of that organization’s leaders is a self-described psychotherapist, poet and black nationalist named Mauricelm-Lei Millere.
After this week’s police shooting death of a black man named Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Millere called for violent retaliation by blacks.
He did so in a posting on the defense league’s Facebook page.
It read like this: “You and I know what we must do and I don’t mean marching, making a lot of noise, or attending conventions. We must ‘Rally The Troops!’ It is time to visit Louisiana and hold a barbeque. The highlight of our occasion will be to sprinkle Pigs Blood!”
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