hello and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm live at cnn center in atlanta. natalie allen here reporting. and hello to my colleague, george howell, there in dallas. hi, george. >> natalie, good day to you. george howell here live in

dallas. the backdrop behind me, the dallas police department. i want to show you here because this quite frankly tells the story. you get a sense of the outpouring of love and support that has come through here in dallas. all of the flowers. all of the balloons, teddy bears, the messages for these five officers, five officers who put their lives on the line just the other day killed in the line of duty. they were gunned down, and seven of their colleagues were also wounded when a sniper opened fire on what started as a peaceful protest here in dallas thursday night. two civilians also wounded in that attack. authorities believed that the gunman, 25-year-old micah xavier johnson, a former u.s. army reservist, that he was the lone shooter. they say he was armed with a rifle and had a handgun. police negotiators say they told him that he was upset. he was upset about recent police shootings of african-americans at the hands of police officers, and that he wanted to kill white people, especially white

officers. the texas governor greg abbott hailed police for their efforts to protect demonstrators when the gunfire erupted. listen. >> the past 24 hours in dallas has been a veritable tale of two cities. on the one hand it's been the tale of heroism of police officers. at the same time it's been a tale of cowardice by an assassin. we are so proud. even in our mourning today. of the men and women who wear the uniform of the dallas police department as well as the dallas area rapid transit. for their heroism in the face of remarkable danger. >> governor abbott there speaking. we bring in detective frederick bishop joining us now live, a detective in the crimes against

persons division. and he has been with the dallas police department for 21 years, and we bring you in and we thank you for taking time with us because you knew one of these officers that didn't come home the other day. >> lorne ahrens. i worked with his wife katrina ahrens. when she first came out of the academy she worked at southeast with her husband. that's how i first met both of them. >> you knew them both. >> yes. >> how is this department dealing with it? how are your colleagues dealing with it? and how is his family dealing with it? >> even today i'm a detective. your heart is heavy. dealing with the death of just members of what you call a family. and no one promotes violence, but you have to understand -- i guess the question is why would you do this?

so our hearts are going out to katrina and other officers and their family. what's gone on with them and the things they have to go through the days to come. >> talk to us about what it's like to be in that role. because again, your job is to protect and serve the people there that are there to protest. protesting alleged police brutality throughout the united states. that's the topic that they're there for. at the same time you're there to do your job. and what i understand about the relationship here in dallas is this police department actually interacts with those protesters. >> yes. they have community policing. and i want to say this. no one wakes up in the morning to say i'm going to write tickets or i'm going to put people in jail. you wake up, you want to help the citizens, you come in and you do what is expected of you. and i guess the sad part about it is that you have someone who took it to the extreme. like i said, i've known katrina

since she's come on to the department. one of the chiefs that -- one of the one-star chiefs that's here, she trained her, which was my partner. good officer. her husband was a good officer. our heart is heavy. we just -- we were sitting up there today and i was with some other detectives today, and your heart is heavy because of the strain or the path which they could have to take now, the children that she had, lorne had himself, his son and his daughter, which they have to deal with now. >> there are these really important topics that are to be discussed, protested by people. we cover all these things as they happen. but just to break it out of these binary terms, here you are, an african-american officer mourning the loss of your friends. not that simple. not as -- >> there are things that happen in the world that we can't control. i think one of the senators or t.d. jakes said a higher power. well, at this point we need

jesus. and i think at some point in time we have to sit back and relax -- i mean, sit back and understand. there are some people out there that are evil. there are some people that take things in their own hand. at what point do we sit back and say okay, this is not what we're about. we're about healing, growing together as a family, as a police department and the citizens. and as i said it before, no one comes here to make arrests or wake up in the morning, say i'm making an arrest or i'm taking you to jail. we're just here to protect and serve. and we have families also that we want to protect and go home to in the evenings. >> we really appreciate you taking time with us. we send our condolences for your loss. >> thank you, sir. i appreciate your coming out and just being here and showing that we are about the citizens of dallas. thank you. >> detective bishop, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> as you can understand, there

are so many people that are remembering their colleagues, remembering these loved ones who were lost in this terrible shooting. the deadliest single incident for u.s. law enforcement since the september 11th attacks. five police officers killed in the line of duty. martin savidge has more. >> reporter: officer patrick zamarripa loved being a cop. he served on the dallas police force for five years. on thursday night he was deployed to watch over the protests. a navy veteran who survived multiple tours in the iraq war. officer zamarripa died on the streets of dallas. he leaves behind two young children. his father and brother posting tributes to him on facebook and twitter, saying they couldn't be prouder. officer zamarripa was 32 years old. officer michael krol worked as a sheriff's deputy in michigan. he moved to dallas in 2007 to fulfill his goal of becoming a

police officer. his uncle says he worked hard to join the dallas police force. officer krol was 40 years old. officer lorne ahrens was a 14-year veteran of the dallas police force. he was married to a dallas police detective and leaves behind two children. brent thompson was a dallas area rapid trance-it officer. he was a father and a grandfather and a newlywed. he married a fellow transit officer just weeks ago. >> i just spoke with him a couple of weeks ago. he was in great spirits. >> before working in dallas he worked oversea as a police liaison officer in iraq and afghanistan. he was the first officer to be killed in the protests. officer thompson was 43 years old. three other d.a.r.t. officers were also shot in the protest but they're expected to survive. officer misty mcbride was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the abdomen. her fellow officers helped her to safety. her young daughter said she was able to tell her mom she loved

her before she headed in for surgery. >> i'm just happy that she was okay. that's really it. that she can live on to tomorrow and that -- i'm just glad that she's alive really. >> reporter: two civilians were also wounded in the shooting. one of them was attending the protest with her four sons. when the gunfire broke out, 37-year-old shetamia taylor was shot in the right leg and immediately jumped to cover her 15-year-old son with her body. >> she pushed him in between two cars and the curb. her other three boys scattered and ran in opposite directions. so she lost three of her boys, didn't know where they were. >> reporter: she's expected to make a full recovery. and her sister says she's been praying for the families of the fallen police officers. martin savidge, cnn, dallas. >> martin, thank you. as martin just mentioned,

patrick zamarripa, one of those officers killed the other day. patrick's father shared a little about his son with us earlier. just listen. >> he was a very, very helpful young man. he was very giving. he would give i his last dollar if he had it in his pocket, if you needed it. he'd bend over backwards to help anybody out. he was very patient. he would try to help anybody out the best he could. if you needed help, patrick would offer you help. even if he couldn't do nothing, he'd offer it to you. my son, he was -- well, since day one, since he was born, he was a hero. he was my little hero. and he's a big hero -- he's a big hero now. yeah, he's going to be missed.

>> patrick's father also said that his son cared deeply about his country and that he loved his time in the navy and that he loved his job as a police officer. we've been seeing a number of protests across the united states. for the most part things were peaceful friday. but we're hearing reports that police in phoenix, arizona that they used pepper spray on protesters there to get the crowds moving. you see these images of police involved with those protesters ther there. >> i saw officers with what looked like a paintball gun. and my understanding on the ground was they were pepper balls, people were holding their eyes. you could see a lot of -- i would see about half a dozen folks who were on the ground covering their eyes obviously in distress. my photographer, photojournalist jim frye, actually got pepper sprayed a little bit but kept going. it was pretty tense there for

quite some time. >> that was dereker derek staahl, a reporter with one of our phoenix affiliates there in phoenix. let's talk more about this situation. there's so much quite frankly to talk about. bringing in civil rights attorney areva martin joining us live via skype from los angeles, california. areva, it's good to have you with us. it's the situation where there are so many different topics and it's easy for them all to get jumbled together. let's parse them out, let's break them out. the first topic, the fatal police-involved shooting of two african-american men in minnesota and louisiana, sparked the protests that we saw. and there was a great deal of concern just the other day, and i know you raised this question, hey, let's not link this guy doing these terrible deranged things to the protesters with who have the reason to protest. >> you're right, george. i was actually on cnn, on the

"cnn tonight" with don lemon, as the dallas shooting was unfolding. and we were talking about the baton rouge and the minneapolis shooting of the african-american men by police officers, and as the information was coming in about the dallas situation there was this inclination i think for there to be a link between the shooting and the peaceful protest. and i just kept cautioning everyone during the sxanl others did as well not to jump to those conclusions because we just didn't have any information. and what i know about the black lives matter and the other activist groups that have been on the ground in cities like ferguson and baltimore, new york and really all over this country is that for the most part these protests have been peaceful. they're comprised of mothers with baby strollers and grandparents and families and college students. it didn't fit the pattern of

what we were hearing about the shooter in dallas, someone that seemed to have a lot of skill, someone that seemed to have premeditated the attack. and as we now learn from the dallas police, this 25-year-old johnson is not a part of and was not a part of the peaceful protester as that were out raising awareness about police brutality when he engaged in the horrific crime that he committed against those officers. >> looking at it, areva, through a journalistic lens, here's the thing. we didn't have any information to link this guy to what -- you know, to the protest. we didn't have that at that time yesterday, and at the same time police had no knowledge of him. there was no way to jump the gun on, that and now we understand what he did were his own reasons. >> yeah. >> so basically, we're hearing

that, police hearing it from people in dallas. >> i think we've seen some of that happening today as well, george. we've had several -- even elected officials that have been in talking today and really wanting to blame black lives matter and other activist groups for the shootings. and i reject that notion. i listened to the founder of black lives matter. i've listened to so many of the organizers of that dallas protest. it is very clear that their intentions, their efforts to raise awareness about the injustice in the criminal justice system is not about being anti-police or enacting any kind of violence against the police. it's important to know, you don't have to be anti-police to be pro justice and equality and the criminal justice system. and i really think that's an important message for all of us to take away, that they're not

mutually exclusive. you can be someone who promotes the end of what is police brutality and reform in the criminal justice system while at the same time being completely against any kind of violence, against anyone and definitely against police officers. >> areva, the story of this night, obviously here in dallas, texas. this community, the dallas-fort worth metroplex realizing these, you know, officers who went in to do their job, their job to protect and serve the public, they went in to do that. and as i've said before, you know, just knowing law enforcement families, these people who were waiting for their loved ones to come through that door, come in, that didn't happen for them the other night. and this community certainly in mourning. a great deal of grief here in dallas for the loss of these officers. areva, thank you so much for being with us.

go ahead. >> thank you, george. i just want to say the whole country's in mourning. you know, my heart goes out to those families. it's just been an incredible week for this country. and i like so many others are just hoping this causes us to have that critical discussion and really take some action to heal our communities. >> areva, there are a lot of discussions being had. we appreciate your being with us. thank you. as we mentioned, the dallas ambush, it followed the fatal shootings of two african-american men by police officers. we take a closer look at how these incidents are affecting race relations here in the united states. as "newsroom" continues. "ow..."

"are you okay?" "yeah, i just got charged for my credit monitoring. that's how i know it"s working." "ah. you know you can go on creditkarma.com and check it out there. it's completely free." "really?" "yeah" "oh, that didn't hurt at all."

"yeah, completely painless." "credit karma. give yourself some credit." welcome back to our coverage. natalie allen, i'm live in atlanta. we want to update you on the deadly police ambush in dallas, texas that left five officers dead. a sniper shot 12 officers and two civilians thursday night at a peaceful protest. the mayor says the 25-year-old military veteran was acting alone. police killed him during a standoff where he said he had bombs. the mass shooting occurred during one of the many demonstrations across the country demanding answers about the killings of two black men by police in two days. the protests continued on friday

in phoenix. a few hours ago witnesses say police used pepper spray on demonstrators. the families of the men killed by police this week in louisiana and minnesota are continuing to speak out. police shot alton sterling several times on tuesday after a homeless man called 911. a source says the man kept asking sterling for money and sterling brandished his gun. the 37-year-old was a father. the mother of one of his sons spoke with our don lemon. >> it's unbearable pain. especially being a mother with a teenage son. and it's like what do you tell him besides i love you and everything's going to be okay, we have to staying to, we have to pray together. and honestly, that's what's been keeping me and cameron focused.

with the help of my family as well. >> and now to the other story. the fiance of philando castile captured the moments after his shooting on wednesday in a live facebook video post. she says a police officer shot castile after pulling him over for a broken taillight. he went to reach for his wallet to get his license after being asked for his identification. we heard from his fiance diamond reynolds on friday. >> it's about all of the families that have lost people. this thing that has happened in dallas, it was not because of something that transpired in minnesota today. this is bigger than philando. this is bigger than trayvon martin. this is bigger than sandra bland. this is bigger than all of us. so today i just want justice for everyone. everyone around the world. >> u.s. president barack obama

will visit dallas early next week to pay respects to the fallen officers. cnn's stephanie elam has more on how the terrifying events of thursday night unfolded. >> details emerging about what is now the deadliest attack on police officers since 9/11. five dallas police officers killed. seven officers and two civilians wounded during a peaceful black lives matter protest. one of many occurring nationwide following the shooting deaths of black men in louisiana and minnesota at the hands of police this week. >> we've got a guy with a long rifle. we don't know where the hell he's at. >> slow down. he's in the damn building right there! >> assist officer. shots fired. code 3. stop the radio. officer down. >> reporter: micah xavier johnson, a self-described black militant and former army reservist who was deployed to afghanistan as a carpentry and masonry specialist. during a search of the suspect's

home detectives found bomb-making materials, ballistic vests, ammunition and a personal journal of combat tactics. the chilling moments captured on cell phone video as the shooter engaged with police. >> this was a well-planned, well thought out evil strategy by these suspects. >> reporter: police are now revealing what johnson told negotiators during the lengthy standoff. >> he said he was upset about the recent meet shootings. the suspect said he was upset at white people. the suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers. >> reporter: and explaining the decision to take johnson down using a robot armed with explosives. >> we saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on the -- its extension for it to detonate.

where the suspect was. other options would have exposed our officers to great danger. >> president obama addressing the shooting from poland. >> there has been a vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement. police in dallas were on duty doing their jobs, keeping people safe during peaceful protests. >> and again, president obama will visit dallas this week. after a short break hear the very latest about the investigation of the ambush of officers there in dallas, texas. we're back live from dallas after this.

and welcome back to our viewers eyre in the united states and around the world. you're watching cnn. i'm natalie allen live in atlanta. >> i'm george howell live in dallas, texas. the united states and all around this city for sure mourning the loss of these five officers killed in the line of duty in an ambush that happened on the streets here. we're also learning more about the suspect behind this attack. being called an act of domestic terrorism. police say the man that you see here, he was the only shooter. authorities say he was 25-year-old micah xavier john n johnson. police killed the former u.s. army reservist after a long standoff that played out through the night. authorities are investigating whether anybody else may have been involved in planning this

attack. in all, seven officers and two civilians, they were all wounded. christopher phelps is a professor of american history at the university of nottingham in england and now joins us live to talk more about what we saw here in dallas. here's the thing. when we talk about this situation and this person behind this attack, we can talk about so many different topics. i mean, from radicalization to just the long history when it comes to race relations here. >> yes indeed. it's a terrible tragedy. and at this point, of course, it's extremely unclear how extensive his political involvements were, what kind of groups he was tied to, whether he was acting absolutely alone or whether it was in some way possibly constant rlted. so a lot of it's up in the air, but he did raise the black power fist on his facebook page. which -- and there are

indications he might have been connected with the new black panther party in some way, at least as a supporter of it, which is very different from the historical black panther party you that might have heard about from the 1960s. it's much more of a racial hate group. >> it is interesting. when we talk about race in politics or race in many different situations, keep in mind, let's talk about the presumptive republican nominee right now, donald trump. he has a group within the group of followers, some people who follow him, who are part of fringe groups, but important not to let that group, you know, overshadow the fact there are conservatives who follow donald trump for other reasons. similar here when it comes to the black lives matter movement. and then you have this deranged guy who goes to do what he does. >> oh, no. i think that's a very important distinction, which is that the vast majority of black lives

matter activists, including those who were marching on the streets of dallas the night that this happened, are non-violent, are committed to protest but not to assassinations and would disavow any such act and consider it tragic. and that this is not some natural outgrowth of the black lives matter movement. it is perhaps a natural outgrowth of the state of affairs in the united states in which police-induced fatalities seem to many african-americans to be out of control and the protest movement's ineffectuality to bring a halt to those. someone who's unhinged and misguide kd take matters into their own hands in ways that are deeply counterproductive and terrible. >> you speak of the black lives

matter movement. and i remember, i always think back to ferguson, missouri, which really was the birth, the beginning of that movement. and again, we're seeing those protests grow and grow, especially after we see time after time after time these police-involved shootings that are investigated by authorities. we appreciate you joining us this day and we appreciate your insights. thank you. let's go back to the cnn center in atlanta with my colleague natalie allen. natalie. >> thank you, george. and we want to get more on these racial tensions in the u.s. charles coleman is a civil rights attorney, former prosecutor and trial lawyer and he joins me from new york. thank you for being with us. we appreciate your time. i want to use a quote that we heard from president obama earlier this week. he said these are not isolated incidents, these are symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in the criminal justice system, and he was talking about the disparity

between the number of african-americans who are pulled over, 30% more are likely to be black than whites, and how many people are charged with mandatory minimums? 75% more blacks. what is it? how did we get to this moment in our country and this tension and this inequity? you've worked in the court system a long time. >> well, natalie, america has had for several years now, several generations actually, a two-tiered system of justice. and our criminal justice system is broken, and it needs to be fixed. in large part there is a very justified, very founded feeling among blacks and among our community that we are targeted, we are targeted at rates higher than members of other communities, and for less serious offenses we receive more harsher punishments. and i think that's indicative across the country. so there is this pervasive feeling that the odds are

stacked against us and the numbers do support that. if you talk about police brutality, for example, police deaths, black americans account for somewhere in the 20th percentile of police deaths. almost 24% of police deaths in america involve african-americans. yet we're only 13% of the population. so when you start looking at those numbers, you understand a little bit more what the president is talking about with respect to that disparity being a very real thing for many americans. >> and it seems, mr. coleman, that ever since trayvon martin there have been outpourings. the black lives matter group came up. and every time it happens there are protests. it can't happen again, it can't keep happening again. why does this keep happening? >> well, one of the things that i've been talking about quite a bit of late is the fact that absent from all of these conversations is the willingness from the law enforcement

community to genuinely come to this conversation and enter the discussion with the sense of being willing to think about things differently and examine their practices in different ways. it continues to happen because racism and implicit bias are continuing to be real things, and they're pervasive in american police culture. you can't take that oust a person just because you give them a badge and a gun. and that's one of the things that becomes problematic. american law enforcement is one of the only professional communities that is unable for some reason to stand up and say hey, you know what? we can improve our practices. we can do things better. and that becomes a huge obstacle for moving the discussion forward. >> yes, it does. we certainly want to separate out this protest with of course the men who lost their lives yesterday in dallas, the senseless killing. when you say we've got to move it forward, who, how, when? we've seen people come together,

blacks, whites, latinos, take to the streets just to say please stop. what -- who can do it? the next president? the police? >> this is an interesting question because it involves all of us participating in the conversation. when i say all of us, the president in his remarks was very careful to point out this was not a black issue, this was not a white issue. this is a human issue. this is an issue involving anyone who was connected to or has an invested interest in justice and fairness. so in that instance, or with that in mind all of us who are humans, any of us who have a sense of humanity need to be speaking out against injustice, against overpolicing, against bad police practices, and being willing to really engage in understanding and an advancement of what's right. you've had all these conversations and you've heard from black lives matter. you've heard from the communities that have been repeatedly oppressed and victimized.

now it's time to hear from the other people who have seen it, who know that it's going on, and who are going to raise their voices in support of actually changing things. it can't be the same voices. it has to be people who are willing to leverage their privilege, willing to use their platforms to speak out and to evoke change. >> we thank you so much for joining us. charles coleman in new york. thank you, mr. coleman. >> thanks, natalie. we'll have much more on the shootings in dallas just ahead. and as more people talk about what happened trying to figure it all out. also ahead here, south korea says the north has launched a ballistic missile from a submarine. we'll have a live report from seoul about that. mini-wheats®... 8 layers of wheat... and one that's sweet. for the adult and kid in all of us. ♪ kellogg's frosted mini-wheats® feed your inner kidult

we'll bring you more from dallas shortly. but first we have some international news to bring to you. north korea has launched a ballistic miss frl a submarine. this according to the south korean military. it says the missile was launched into seas southeast of sinpo city in the east of north korea. for more on what we know about this latest move by the capital pyongyang we go to our matt rivers in seoul. the question is do we know if it was successful, matt? >> reporter: we know it was not successful. that according to south korean defense officials. who also told us this launch happened around 11:30 in the morning. and they say it was not successful. they wouldn't elaborate on that. but south korean local media here is reporting that while the missile did leave the submarine that it was launched from and make it to about ten kilometers in the air it only traveled forward for a few kilometers before exploding and therefore failing. and this is the second such test. a missile launched from a submarine that has failed this

year, that the north koreans have attempted. it was back in april that a similar test was conducted. that missile only traveled 30 kilometers or so before it too failed. those tests are just part of a series of provocations we've seen in a very busy 2016. there have been other types of missiles tested. and of course there was the nuclear test back in january. so this just the latest of what has been a busy year for pyongyang. >> and why is it so important they figure out how to launch from a submarine? and what would that do to the pressure on north korea and the tension there on the region if they did succeed? >> what you hear from experts is two things, really. by moving forward, by getting a functioning slbm program north korea would be able to do two things. one, it would be able to perhaps launch these missiles with less of a warning to countries like the united states and south

korea that are constantly monitoring north korea. it might make detecting a launch that much harder. and then it also gives the north koreans a better strategic game, frankly. it allows them to go more place, to launch from sea as opposed to having to launch from installations that are land locked. you can go just about anywhere you want in a submarine in terms of, you know, in the ocean, out in the open sea. so it gives them an added strategic advantage. and because of those two things you can expect the north koreans to try and advance this program, how successful they will be and how soon they will be successful. if they are successful, it remains to be seen, natalie. >> matt rivers in seoul, south korea. thank you, matt. in the wake of the shooting in dallas, u.s. president barack obama will shorten the spanish end of his european trip this weekend and travel to dallas early next week. mr. obama is in poland right now for a nato meeting in the coming hours. the president said on friday the u.s. was horrified by what he

called a vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement in dallas. the news of the dallas shooting may have become the focus for mr. obama, but at that nato summit in poland the future of the alliance and russia are on the agenda. nic robertson is joining us from warsaw. he's been covering for us. russia and the future of the alliance, no small topics to discuss there, nic. >> reporter: and this is leading to what's been called an inflection point in the relationship, historic relationship between nato and russia. you're seeing a build-up of nato forces going from sort of reassuring its eastern allies to a real deterrent for russia two years ago at the summit in wales, nato summit in wales. it was agreed to put 40,000 additional troops in heel to toe -- with prepositioned equipment in the east of europe. that is now being realized. that's what's being discussed

here but also what is now required additionally given russia's response to that. so what we heard just yesterday was that four additional battalions, united states, germany, britain, possibly canada, providing the bulk of those four additional battalions going to the baltic states, latvia, lithuania, estonia, and poland. and this is on top of the sort of rapid reaction force that's been established in europe, 13,000 troops that could move within a couple of days if there was a russian incursion. that's just the tip of the iceberg, if you will. talking about here resilience of the nations to be able to deal with a cyber threat, to be able to deal with a hybrid threat, to be able to deal with the sort of chemical, biological, nuclear possibilities as well. again, that's just the russia portion of this. the discussions today would be about afghanistan, about ukraine. at the end of today president obama will meet with what's called the quint. that would be britain, germany, france, and italy to discuss

with president petro poroshenko of ukraine about the situation in ukraine and the minsk agreement between ukraine and russia to try to bring about an end of the tensions in the east of ukraine and allow ukraine to control its borders, its own international borders all the way along the border with russia. so a lot to get through here before president obama then moves on. now not to seville but to madrid allowing him to cut short this trip returning back to washington late, late sunday. natalie? >> yes. his last trip to europe as president. all right. nic robertson for us there in warsaw. thank you. a super typhoon has been downgraded now to a tropical storm as it moves from taiwan toward china. before it weakened the typhoon killed at least three people and injured more than 140. the storm battered taiwan's eastern coast, leaving a path of destruction as it swept the shore. more than 16,000 people forced to leave their homes in that

one. ahead here, the dallas police chief says he is heartbroken over the ambush that killed five of his officers. he's endured some personal tragedies of his own during his 30 years on the force. we'll talk about that next.

in dallas authorities say the gunman who killed five people -- police officers, excuse me, in a deadly ambush was the lone shooter. but they want to make sure that he had no accomplices. seven officers, two civilians were also wounded in thursday's attack before the gunman was killed. he's been identified as 25-year-old micah johnson. authorities say he told police negotiators he was upset about recent police sheetings of black men and wanted to kill white officers. following the shooting, police found bomb-making materials, ballistic vests and ammunition at the shooter's home. dallas is still reeling after thursday's deadly ambush. and now its police chief must restore calm and deal with the anguished aftermath of the deadliest assault on u.s. law

enforcement since the 9/11 attacks. as randi kaye reports, the 30-year veteran police chief has endured several personal tragedies of his own. >> we're hurting. our profession is hurting. dallas officers are hurting. we are heartbroken. >> reporter: dallas police chief david brown, heartbroken and hurting. he's been here before. back in 1988, one of the most violent years for police officers in his city, brown responded to a shooting. he was only weeks into his assignment with the department's officer-involved shooting team. immediately he spotted a familiar pair of sunglasses at the scene and realized the officer who'd been shot was his classmate from the academy, his former partner. brown talked about it later in this police memorial video. >> my best friend, police

officer walter williams, was killed in the line of duty. >> reporter: brown's former partner, walter williams, had been ambushed and shot in the head. he died at the hospital. brown told the "dallas morning news" years ago, i really relate to all of those in the line of duty deaths on a much more personal level. you lose a partner, you just never get over it. the pain didn't end there. three years later, in 1991, david brown lost his younger brother to violence when he was killed by drug dealers. this morning after four of his officers were killed by a sniper, chief brown yet again felt the toll of violence. >> all i know is that this -- this must stop. this divisiveness between our police and our citizens. >> brown has seen more than his share of tragedy, both professionally and personally. in 2010 he lost his son in a shootout with police.

at the time brown was just seven weeks into the top job as chief. his son, also named david, had reportedly suffered a psychotic breakdown before killing a man. when a police officer responded, the chief's son killed the officer too before he was fatally shot more than a dozen times. chief brown released a statement to his officers telling them, "that hurts so deeply i cannot adequately express the sadness i feel inside my heart." chief brown is a 30-year veteran of the dallas police department. known for being a loner, he also has a reputation for being introspective and intense as the "dallas morning news." brown reportedly had plans to go to law school and become a prosecutor. but police work changed all that. in a column the chief wrote back in 2014 after michael brown was killed by a white ferguson police officer, he said he was reminded of his first interview at the academy. when he was asked why he wanted to become a police officer, his

response, he wrote, "i want to help people, sir. i want to serve my community. i want to make a difference. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> you're watching cnn live coverage. i'm natalie allen in atlanta. >> and i'm george howell live in dallas, texas. we will be right back with more special coverage here on cnn of the shooting aftermath here in dallas after this short break. wannwith sodastream®er? you turn plain water into sparkling water

in seconds. and because it's so delicious, you'll drink 43% more water every day. sodastream®. love your water.

just checking my free credit score at credit karma. what the??? you're welcome. i just helped you dodge a bullet. but i was just checking my... shhh... don't you know that checking your credit score lowers it! just be cool. actually, checking your credit score with credit karma doesn't affect it at all. are you sure? positive. so i guess i can just check my credit score then? oooh "check out credit karma today. credit karma. give yourself some credit." sorry about that.

♪ and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. you're watching cnn live coverage. i'm natalie allen in atlanta. and i'm george howell live here in dallas, texas. and i want to give you a sense of the backdrop behind me here. you see this memorial set up. there are two police cars. there's another one for the d.a.r.t. police department. this for the dallas police department, representing officers killed. there are flowers, there are messages to these ever 0s, people honoring their lives, giving their live