Dallas shooting: Lone shooter's house was loaded

Cops find bomb-making material, ballistic vests and rifles

Washington: The Dallas Police Department discovered bomb-making material, rifles, ballistic vests, ammunition and a combat journal at the home of the key suspect in the Dallas shootings, in which five police officers were killed and seven wounded during a demonstration on Thursday.

People react during a rally at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, California. Pic/AFP

The suspect, Micah Johnson, 25, died after a long stand-off with police in central Dallas. Mayor Mike Rawlings said officials believed he was “the lone shooter”. “We believe now the city is safe,” Rawlings said.

A search of his home produced “bomb-making material, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition, and a personal journal of combat tactics,” Dallas Police Department said.

Johnson who gunned down police officers, had specially set out to kill as many white officers as he could.

Johnson was a retired soldier who had served in Afghanistan and kept an arsenal in his home that included military equipment and bomb making material.

Cops found no evidence that Johnson had direct ties to any protest or political group, but his Facebook page showed that he supported the New Black Panther Party, a group that advocated violence against whites and Jews.

The shooting by Johnson on Thursday was a retaliation against police abuse which killed two African-Americans, Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota.

Sterling, 37, was shot dead on July 5 by two Baton Rouge police officers after being tackled to the ground. In a similar incident, Castile, 32, was also shot dead on July 6 by the police in Minnesota's Falcon Heights.

US President Barack Obama is to cut short his trip to Europe by a day and visit Dallas early next week

One slain officer was a newlywed. Another had survived multiple tours in Iraq, only to be killed back home in the US. A protester who doesn’t normally march was shot trying to shield her sons.

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