The Latest: Dallas police say nothing found in garage search
DALLAS (AP) - The Latest on the shooting of police officers in Dallas (all times local):
7:55 p.m.
Dallas police officials have issued an all-clear after searching for a suspicious person in a parking garage next to its headquarters.
A Dallas police spokeswoman said earlier Saturday that the department tightened security after receiving an anonymous threat against law enforcement across the city.
The department says on Twitter that it searched the garage with officers and dogs to ensure a report of a suspicious person was thoroughly investigated.
The city is on edge since a sniper opened fire on officers guiding a protest march two days ago, killing five officers.
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6:50 p.m.
Dallas police officials say officers are searching for a suspicious person in a parking garage next to its headquarters.
The police department also asked media not to broadcast live near the headquarters for the safety of officers. They say the headquarters building is not on lockdown and that no shots have been fired. They also say SWAT officers set off a device to enter a locked fence.
A nearby light rail station also was closed. The Dallas Transit agency cited "police activity."
A Dallas police spokeswoman said earlier Saturday that the department received an anonymous threat against law enforcement across the city and has tightened security.
The city is on edge since a sniper opened fire on officers guiding a protest march two days ago, killing five officers.
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6:25 p.m.
At least two Dallas Police Department buildings are now blocked off, with numerous police vehicles and armed officers outside.
Officers in helmets carrying rifles were outside the buildings Saturday evening. Police also are standing outside a building behind police headquarters.
It wasn't immediately clear what police are investigating. Maj. Thomas Castro says several general threats have been made against Dallas police, though nothing specific.
A Dallas police spokeswoman said earlier Saturday that the department received an anonymous threat against law enforcement across the city and has tightened security.
Police also have shut down a street in front of the department's headquarters amid the heightened police presence.
Reporters are being told to move away from the area.
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6 p.m.
Dallas police have shut down a street in front of the department's headquarters and there is a heightened police presence near the building.
It wasn't immediately clear what police were investigating. Media outlets were being told to move to the front of headquarters, in east of downtown Dallas
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5:45 p.m.
A Dallas police spokeswoman says the department received an anonymous threat against law enforcement across the city and has tightened security.
Dallas Police Department spokeswoman Sr. Cpl. Monica Cordova called the measures precautionary.
An armored vehicle was moved to near the department's downtown headquarters late Saturday afternoon and heavily armed officers were seen walking nearby. But members of the public were still able to walk about freely around the building.
Other departments around the country have been receiving threats. They follow videos involving police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the killing of five police officers by a sniper in Dallas.
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5:20 p.m.
An uncle of the black Minnesota man fatally shot by police during a traffic stop last week says his nephew "stayed on the straight and narrow" and was "always a good man."
Clarence Castile spoke with The Associated Press on Saturday while standing at the site where Philando Castile was shot and killed by a police officer last week.
Two memorials have been set up at the site, attracting a steady stream of visitors. Many left bouquets of flowers, some left messages, while others used chalk on the street to write condolences and messages of support for the family.
Clarence Castile says Philando was giving, timid and loving. He vowed to "not let my nephew be killed in vain." He says something more has to come from this and he's going to find out what it is.
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5:15 p.m.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is meeting with the family and friends of a black man police killed this week.
St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot Philando Castile on Wednesday during a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Falcon Heights. Protesters have been camped out in front of Dayton's mansion for three days, demanding justice.
Dayton has met with the demonstrators several times. Dayton spokesman Matt Swenson said the governor and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith met with Castile's family and friends on Saturday afternoon at the mansion.
Swenson says the meeting was very cordial but declined to comment on the substance of the conversation. Swenson says the governor plans to meet with representatives of the NAACP on Sunday.
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5 p.m.
The police department in the Gulf Coast town of Waveland, Mississippi, is among those on alert after receiving what authorities there deem credible threats against officers.
Police Chief David Allen told The Sun Herald newspaper (http://bit.ly/29zawdQ) the threats had come via phone and social media and involved possible gunfire attacks Saturday night and Sunday. Extra police were to be on duty during the weekend.
Officials have also notified surrounding police agencies, fire departments and emergency medical services.
The threats follow videos involving police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the killing of five police officers by a sniper in Dallas.
Dallas police say they've also been getting threats.
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4:45 p.m.
The gunman who ambushed police officers in Dallas studied at a self-defense school that advertises teaching various firearm tactics, including "shooting on the move."
A person who says he was in charge of the Academy of Combative Warrior Arts in suburban Richardson told The Associated Press on Saturday that Micah Johnson had studied there about two years ago. The man refused to answer additional questions and would not give his name.
A Richardson police department report, dated May 8, 2015, noted that Johnson had told an officer he "had just gotten out of a class at a nearby self-defense school." The school is a few doors down.
The report was made in response to a suspicious person. The investigating officer closed the case just minutes after being called to the scene.
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4 p.m.
The Dallas memorial to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is a closed crime scene to the usual hordes of weekend tourists.
Police cruisers still cordon off 20 square downtown blocks where an Army reservist killed five police officers in a sniper attack. Onlookers outside the barricades are mourning the slain officers in a city long tormented by the Kennedy assassination.
The ambush Thursday night during a protest march over recent police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota shook even Dallas residents most inexorably tied to Kennedy's death.
Among them is Marie Tippit, the 87-year-old widow of the Dallas police officer who Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed after killing Kennedy. She says she stayed up watching coverage of this week's bloodshed until the "wee hours."
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2 p.m.
Police in Missouri are asking for help from anyone who witnessed an officer being shot.
St. Louis County police spokesman Officer Benjamin Granda said Saturday in an email that investigators believe several people were "driving or running" nearby when the Ballwin officer was shot during a traffic stop Friday. He asks that witnesses call the department.
County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch says the officer was "ambushed" during a traffic stop when he was shot at least once from behind.
Granda also says the officer, who hasn't been identified, remained in critical condition Saturday.
Thirty-one-year-old Antonio Taylor is in custody and charged with assault of a police officer, armed criminal action and being a felon in possession of a firearm. It's unclear if he has a lawyer.
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12:35 p.m.
Several people around the country have been arrested for making threats against law enforcement in the wake of shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota and the killings of five officers in Dallas.
A suburban Chicago woman is accused of posting a threat on Facebook to shoot any police officer who pulls her over and asks her to get out of the car.
Police in Louisiana say a man was jailed after posting a social media video in which he says he wants to shoot and kill a police officer. Police in Bossier (BOH'-zhur) say the man made the video while sitting in a car that was behind a police unit at a fast-food drive-thru.
And in Racine, Wisconsin, police say they arrested a man who posted calls for black men to kill white police officers and their families.
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12:30 p.m.
President Barack Obama contends that racial relations have improved during his presidency, but he describes that progress in measured terms.
Obama says the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and discrimination cannot be wiped away by any one milestone, whether that's the Civil Rights Act or his election as the first black president.
But he says he's tried to get all Americans to listen to each other on matters of race. He says he believes his voice has "been true in speaking about these issues."
As the president put it during a news conference in Poland, "We plant seeds. And somebody else, maybe, sits under the shade of the tree that we planted."
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12:20 p.m.
Demonstrators calling for justice in the fatal police shooting of a black driver are marking a third straight day outside the Minnesota governor's mansion in St. Paul.
A crowd that once numbered about 1,500 has dwindled to a couple of dozen protesters by midday Saturday. They formed a circle in the street in front of the governor's residence as an organizer prayed for peace and togetherness.
On the fence in front of the mansion, protesters posted signs, some of which read "Justice for Philando" and "Stop Police Brutality."
The demonstration was the latest to protest the death of Philando Castile, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop by a police officer in the predominantly white St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights.
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12:05 p.m.
President Barack Obama says the proliferation of guns is part of the broader tensions that sometimes arise between police departments and the communities they serve.
Obama is defending his calls for stricter gun measures in the wake of the Dallas shootings that killed five and injured seven police officers.
He says police officers at times have very little margin for error in making decisions because guns are so plentiful.
Obama also says the United States is unique among advanced countries in the scale of violence that it experiences, not just through mass shootings but the spate of people shot in his hometown of Chicago.
He says the U.S. cannot identify every trouble individual before they do harm to innocent people, but it can make it harder for them to do so.
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11:55 p.m.
Wimbledon champion Serena Williams says the recent fatal police shootings of two black men and the attack on police in Dallas have her worried.
Williams was asked about the episodes after winning Wimbledon on Saturday.
She says the events made her think about her nephews.
She says she's wondering if she should call them and tell them, "Don't go outside. If you get in your car, it might be the last time I see you."
On Tuesday in Louisiana, a black man was shot by police. A day later in Minnesota, another black man was shot dead by an officer.
Then, five police officers were shot and killed during a protest in Dallas on Thursday.
Williams says "obviously, violence is not the answer of solving it." She calls the Dallas shootings "very sad."
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11:45 a.m.
President Barack Obama says America is "not as divided as some suggest" while acknowledging this has been "a very tough week" for the nation.
The president says Americans of all races and backgrounds are "rightly outraged" by the deadly attack on Dallas police officers, and "rightly saddened and angered" by the fatal police shooting of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Obama addressed matters of grief, anger of unity at a news conference in Warsaw, Poland.
He says those who protested the killings of the two black men are as outraged as anyone by the killings of five police officers in Dallas.
Obama says that "as tough, as hard, as depressing" as has been the loss of lives this week, "we've got a foundation to build on."
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11:15 a.m.
Many U.S. flags are flying at half-staff in Texas to honor the five officers slain in Dallas, but a South Texas judge says only the Texas flag has been lowered in his county.
Goliad County Judge Pat Calhoun, the county's top administrator, told the Victoria Advocate (http://bit.ly/29DhLk6) that Gov. Greg Abbott's order to lower the state flag was a "local issue."
Calhoun says Thursday's shooting in Dallas and another last month at an Orlando nightclub that killed 49 did not meet federal criteria for lowering the U.S. flag.
President Barack Obama in both instances ordered the American flag be lowered.
The U.S. Flag Code allows presidents and governors to lower flags for officials, military members and certain occasions, though some states have their own policies.
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10:25 a.m.
An attorney for a suburban Minneapolis police officer who killed a black motorist says the officer reacted to the man's gun, not his race.
Minneapolis attorney Thomas Kelly told The Associated Press on Saturday that St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez was reacting to "the presence of that gun and the display of that gun" when he opened fire on Philando Castile.
Castile's girlfriend, who streamed the shooting's aftermath live on Facebook, says Castile was permitted to carry the gun.
Kelly says Yanez, who is Latino, is distraught and saddened over the Wednesday shooting in the Minneapolis suburb of Falcon Heights.
Authorities say that during the traffic stop, Yanez approached Castile's car from the driver's side and another officer approached from the passenger side. Yanez opened fire, striking Castile multiple times.
Kelly wouldn't elaborate on what led up to the shooting, citing a pending investigation.
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7:45 a.m.
Texas authorities say two officers have shot and killed a gunman on Houston's south side.
Houston Police Department officials say the shooting happened about 12:40 a.m. Saturday, when officers saw a man with a revolver standing in the road. Police say after officers asked the man to put down the gun, he instead pointed the revolver in the air, then at the officers. The officers then fired numerous times.
The unidentified man died at the scene.
Bystander Eric Puckett tells KTRK-TV (http://abc13.co/29o79HX) the victim was a black male. The officers' races were not immediately known.
KTRK says one of the unidentified officers is a 10-year veteran of the force, and the other is a 13-year veteran. The officers will be investigated by internal affairs, along with Harris County.
An investigation is ongoing.
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1:50 a.m.
A black Army veteran upset about fatal police shootings of black men and bent on exterminating white police officers killed five lawmen in a sniper attack that layered new anxiety onto a nation already divided about guns and how police treat African-Americans.
Micah Johnson, who donned a protective vest and used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, was killed by a robot-delivered bomb after the Thursday evening shootings, authorities said. It marked the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In all, 12 officers were shot just a few blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was slain in 1963.
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11 p.m.
Philando Castile's mother and two of his uncles are condemning a shooting in Dallas that left five police officers dead and wounded several more.
In an interview with CNN, Valerie Castile says her son would not have approved of the shootings "because he believed that all lives matter."
Police say Dallas suspect Micah Johnson was upset about the fatal police shootings of Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.
Tracy Castile says while the video of his nephew's death is horrific, he is glad it came out. He says he and his family are looking for due process. He wants the officer involved to be "treated like any other criminal."
State investigators identified the two officers as Jeronimo Yanez and Joseph Kauser. Both are on administrative leave.
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10:30 p.m.
A military lawyer says the man who fatally shot five officers in Dallas was accused of sexual harassment by a female solider when he served in the Army in Afghanistan in May 2014.
Lawyer Bradford Glendening says Micah Johnson was sent back to the U.S. with the recommendation he be removed from the Army with an "other than honorable" discharge.
Glendening, who represented Johnson at the time, said Friday that the recommendation was "highly unusual" since generally counseling is ordered before more drastic steps are taken.
Glendening said Johnson was set to be removed from the Army in September 2014 because of the incident. Instead, Johnson got an honorable discharge the following April - for reasons Gardening doesn't understand.