Suspected gunman in Dallas Police attack shot by SWAT snipers

The gunman opened fire at the Dallas Police Department headquarters and planted at least two explosive devices, including a bag filled with pipe bombs, near police vehicles, in an ambush attack around 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

He fired on the headquarters with automatic weapons from inside what witnesses described as an armored van.

SWAT team snipers “shot at the suspect … through the front windshield of the van, striking the suspect,” said Dallas Police Chief David Brown. Police tweeted that a sniper with a .50 caliber rifle shot twice at the vehicle’s engine and then a third time through the windshield, hitting the suspect.

A bomb tech robot will “try and confirm whether the suspect is deceased” Brown said at a Saturday morning press conference.

Because the suspect claimed his van “was rigged with explosives,” authorities will have a “planned detonation … at that van,” according to Brown.

“We believe this suspect meant to kill officers and took time to discharge that weapon multiple times to accomplish” that goal, Brown said.

The suspect “would get angry [and] rant” during negotiations until, “at some point, negotiations just ceased … on his end,” according to Brown.

The gunman identified himself as James Boulware, but his identity has not yet been verified, according to Brown, who said that Boulware had made previous threats against law enforcement.

He blamed police for losing custody of his son, and said police had accused “him of being a terrorist,” said Brown.

No officers were injured in the attack. “I believed we are blessed that our officers survived this event,” said Brown.

Dallas police tweeted that one bag of explosives was found under a dumpster and underneath a truck in the police headquarters parking. Residents have been evacuated.

Squad cars in the police headquarters’ front lobby, its information desk, a helicopter that’s inside as a museum piece, and on the building’s second floor, were all riddled with bullets, according to police chief Brown.

Police headquarters has turned into a “complex crime scene” and the FBI is now assisting in the investigation.