http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/13/us/dallas ... -shooting/Explosives found, suspect cornered after gunfire targets Dallas police headquarters
(CNN)[Breaking news update, posted at 7:00 a.m. ET]
-- "Dallas SWAT disabled the suspect vehicle with a .50 cal rifle. Standoff is ongoing," Dallas police said on its confirmed Twitter account Saturday morning.
-- Explosives experts detonated an explosive device found under a police vehicle, police said in a tweet. No one was injured. Officers are also investigating a suspicious package at a police substation.
[Previous story, posted at 6:51 a.m. ET]
(CNN) -- Attackers opened fire on Dallas police headquarters early Saturday, then an armored van parked in front of the building drove off and rammed a squad car, authorities said.
Police returned fire, and the van fled with the suspects.
After the attack, police found suspicious bags near the headquarters. At least one contained explosives, prompting evacuations from areas around the police headquarters.
As an explosives robot approached one of them, it blew up, Maj. Max Geron tweeted. No one was injured.
Authorities believe up to four people may have opened fire from various locations with automatic weapons, including from the van, said Police Chief David Brown.
"There might be up to four suspects," Brown said.
Witnesses told police about the nature of the vehicle and the weapons used.
Windows shattered at police headquarters, and bullets pierced squad cars, but no one has been injured.
Police gave chase as one or more suspects jumped into the van, but one appeared not to make it on board on time, Brown said. It's unclear whether that suspect was arrested.
The attackers and officers exchanged gunfire then police cornered the van in a fast food restaurant parking lot near an interstate.
"There is currently a standoff with what appears to be an armored vehicle in the Dallas suburb of Hutchins, Texas, around I-20 and I-45," said Maj. Max Geron.
Security has been beefed up at Dallas police stations and at Dallas City Hall, he said.
A SWAT team is negotiating with a suspect, who gave the name James Boulware, but police said that they cannot independently confirm that it is the suspect's real identity.
Police found a previous record of domestic violence by a man under that name. The suspect told police that he was angry because they took away his child and labeled him a terrorist.
He threatened to blow them up and broke off negotiations, Brown said.
At police headquarters, officers noticed suspicious bags, which explosives specialists were inspecting. They found pipe bombs in one of them. Later, police reported the explosion of a bag as an explosive ordnance robot tried to move it.
Some more about this Boulware fellow:
http://heavy.com/news/2015/06/james-bou ... terrorist/According to a 2013 story from KXII, a James Lance Boulware, then 33, was arrested after threatening violence against his family, churches and schools.
The police report shows that the incident began at Boulware’s mother’s house in Dallas in May 2013. Police said Boulware grabbed his mother around the neck with both of his hands and began choking her. Boulware’s uncle then removed his hands from his mother’s throat and pushed him away. Boulware then punched his uncle several times, police said in the report. His mother call 911 and then struck Boulware in the back of the head several times with a laptop computer while he was fighting on the ground with his uncle.
Boulware left his mother’s house and went to his brother’s home in Paris, Texas, where he removed several guns, rifles, body armor and several boxes of ammunition and left. His family told police Boulware had recently made comments about “shooting up schools and churches.”
Boulware was later caught in Paris and arrested.
The case was dismissed in April 2014 after Boulware met court-ordered conditions, according to Dallas County court records.
The police report in the 2013 case shows that Boulware “talks to himself quite frequently and appears to be delusional,” but was not taking any medications. He did not have any prior criminal history.
During the 2013 incident, police said Boulware “began making comments about North and South Korea, and began rudely talking about religion, Jews and Christians.”
According to court records, a judge recently granted custody of Boulware’s 11-year-old son to Boulware’s mother after both he and the child’s mother were determined to not be fit to be in sole possession of the son. Boulware and the boy’s mother retained some parental rights, according to the judge’s order, and must each pay child support.
The boy’s mother has a history of drug problems, according to the court filings.[ wow, what a lucky kid]
After finding out more about this character, I think there's a very good chance that the reports of multiple shooters will turn out to be mistaken. This looks like a classic case of an angry, heavily armed mentally ill person lashing out over the personal wrong he perceives was done to him...
A person with that profile almost always acts alone; they aren't organized or persuasive enough to attract other people to help them.
With all the shooting and explosives, it's a miracle no one has been hurt.
