welcome back. i'm chris jansing and this is msnbc's continuing coverage of the tragedy here in dallas. right now dallas police have given the all clear after a tense situation at police headquarters that unfolded tonight. authorities on alert for more than an hour after reports of a suspicious person in their parking garage attached to the building. police moved the media away from the scene as they swept through the garage, but after conducting a manual search they've announced no suspects and no suspicious items have been found. also at this hour people in dallas are gathering for a memorial to remember the five

police officers killed on thursday. another seven officers were wounded. and tonight we have learned that at least two of those officers have been released from the hospital. also tonight in washington, d.c. the fallen dallas officers honored at a vigil at the national law enforcement memorial. elsewhere in the nation demonstrations against police violence are continuing, like this nighttime march in atlanta, georgia. there's another one going on in indianapolis, indiana, and meanwhile we're learning new details about the dallas shooter, micah xavier johnson. we get more from nbc's gabe gutierrez. >> reporter: before he would slaughter five officers and wound seven others in what police say was a well-planned ambush, micah johnson was described as a loner. his facebook page reflected interest in the black power movement investigators say he was upset with the black lives matter group. >> one gunman with no known

links to or inspiration from any international terrorist organization. >> reporter: also tonight new details about his time as an army reservist, a military lawyer who says he represented johnson tells nbc news the army prematurely kicked johnson out of afghanistan after he was accused of sexual harassment by a female soldier. the lawyer says the accuser requested a protect testify order and johnson get mental order, but military sources say despite the allegations johnson was not convicted of any criminal offense and received an honorable discharge from the army in april of last year. his lawyer wasn't sure why but said it could have happened because johnson's service contract expired. now investigators are piecing together johnson's digital trail after finding bomb making materials, ballistic vests and a personal journal of combat tactics at the home he shared with his mother. in downtown dallas several city blocks remained shut down as authorities scour the crime scene where a peaceful protest turned into panic.

>> i heard six shots. >> reporter: damon credits officers with helping officers save their lives. >> they are part of the city. nobody wants to see cops die. >> reporter: outside the police department. >> it's tough anytime you lose someone, it's really tough anytime someone is taken from you unexpectedly. >> reporter: a texas-sized tribute. >> we are all human here and i think that people feel each other's pain. that's what makes you hopeful, that we can move from senselessness, absurdity to something that has redemption and hope in it. >> and that was nbc's gabe gutierrez reporting. on thursday night when the shooting began just a block from where i am there was a rush to escape, but our next guest became an unlikely heroine when she ran into a young boy who had gotten separated from his family. his mother had gotten struck by gunfire and she ordered her four sons to run for safety. all four are safe due to angie

wise ner who found the young boys, rushed him to safety and took to social media to let everyone know he was okay. the mom still hospitalized, recovering after surgery. angie joins me now here. how are you doing? >> okay. >> it's been a crazy 48 hours. >> yes, ma'am. >> are you sleeping, are you eating? >> yes, ma'am, i am. i am. just kind of worried about the son. i still want to hear from the son to see how he's doing. >> let's talk about what happened that night. explain where you were, what you heard and how you two came to find each other. >> we were pretty much ending up the little protest on that last little stretch leaving the red courthouse and we came to the brick building and we just heard a whole bunch of noise and me, my cousin and my cousin's three kids were together and we took out running and as we were running he ran up behind us and he was like, ma'am, ma'am, can i stay with y'all because i lost my mom. i don't know where my mom is.

i was like, okay. >> what goes through your mind when a little kid comes up to you and says that? >> okay. like automatic. i love -- i have three kids of my own, two boys and one girl and a stepson so i'm like for the kids regardless. so when he said it i didn't even think about it, i was just like, come on. okay. come on. yes, come on. so we kept hearing gunshots. we were still trying to run together, you know, and he was like let's go in the hotel and i was like they are not going to let us go in there, after he said that we heard more gun shots so we just kept running. kept running. >> he must have been terrified. >> oh, yes. >> there's gunshots and he is not with his mom and brothers. >> he kept looking back. i was assuming maybe he was looking to see if they were behind him, but nobody was back there. >> so then what, did you take him home? >> no, ma'am. i was like let's just try to make it to my truck so that you can call because he had lost his phone and we used somebody's phone but he couldn't get in touch with them. so i was just like maybe we make

it to the truck you can call, but we was trying to go to my truck and the police kept on turning us away because there was still shooting. so we were running, run gs, running. finally we ran past an apartment and the guy was like bring the kids in. bring the kids in, y'all can come inside of my apartment, my girlfriend's apartment. so we went inside of there and from there i was trying to get -- reach out to his family and he was trying to reach out. side my family trying to reach out to his family and what he had to do was he had to download an app, i guess he used on his phone, he downloaded on the guy's phone and it brought up all the information that he needed because his mom wasn't answering the phone, nobody was reaching out to him. >> by then his mom was probably in surgery. >> but we didn't know at the time. at the time we were trying to reach out for them they were also putting up missing ads on facebook for him but we didn't know none of this at the time. at the time we didn't know. we didn't even know that they were looking for him. i didn't find that out until friday when i went back and

looked on facebook. >> so how did you finally connect him with his family members? >> an app. he downloaded an app and he got in touch with his cousin. his cousin then told him that his mom had been shot and that's how -- and then she came and picked him up. >> so you have heard from his mom on facebook, right? >> she just said that she would really like to meet me and give me a hug and i was like same. >> and you said you're concerned about the boy. >> yeah, because i want to know how he feel because we were -- i was telling him -- i was like let's just hope and pray that she didn't get shot and if she did get shot maybe it's in the leg and we come to find out it was in the leg. >> the first person that a lot of us saw who actually witness it had was a woman coming out of the hospital who is her sister and who said she had been shot in the calf and in fact had shielded one of her sons and then i guess they all got separated. >> uh-huh. >> what was the reunion like

when he saw -- was it his cousin that came to pick him snup. >> it was his cousin. he started walking toward the car and turned around and gave me a big hug and they were hollering thank you and i said you're welcome and then they just left. >> how are you and your kids doing? that was a traumatic experience. >> my daughter was mad at me. >> why was she fussing at you. >> she was scared that something happened to me while i was here. i was trying to make them understand that it was important for me to be at the protest for them and their future. >> why was it important for you. >> knowledge. knowledge. to me it's not about a black and white thing. to me it's about knowledge. >> well, i'm telling you that kid was lucky that he found you and i'm sure that it's going to be really something when you meet his mom. >> right. >> i know you're looking forward to that. >> i am. >> thank you so much for what you did and thank you for taking the time to talk to us. >> you're welcome. and joining me now msnbc national reporter trymaine lee

is at clyde warren park. a little bit of rain but it hasn't kept the folks from going out there. >> reporter: that's right, chris. despite the rain there are a couple hundred people out here, arm in arm, some hugging, some praying. a community church has this prayer group every month, once a month or sorks but now it's with a little bit of a heavier heart. one of their members, michael smith, was a police officer killed by micah johnson, he was a 25-year veteran of the force, 55 years old. his wife was a schoolteacher. over the years he has been -- won many awards, but also at this church he patrolled their day care area during sunday school, a beloved member of their church and the community. earlier someone took to the stage and asked everyone to think about the moment when they heard about the killing and they prayed. one man even came up to me wanting to pray with me. folks here are trying to find answers to why. why this kind of tragedy would

strike not just this city but also so close to home. but it's not just here in this park, it's all across the city. i spent most of the day on the south side of dallas, the historic black community, the heart of the black community there and i went to a community event and i asked folks there how do you wrestle with this idea of supporting on one hand, you know, an end to police violence, on the other hand wrestling with this great grief and how they make sense of it all. here is what one man had to say. >> what created a micah johnson? >> america. america. same person that created dylann roof. what's the difference? only one went off in a sanctuary in a church and took out nine peop people. >> reporter: you can see here the mood is somber. though you don't feel the weight

of grief in folks, people are holding hands, praying for some sort of resolution. again, this is something they do every month, but this time it was special. they asked for folks from other churches, other communities, whoever wanted to come and find some peace, some moment of solis and here they're doing it in the rain, even as there are so many more questions and answers and people are wrestling with heady ideas of race and violence, the police as warriors out against their communities or guardians of other communities. these are all heavy moments and heavy time and heavy topics, but folks here they came to pray. chris. >> and we've seen it so many times before, that coming together does help. it gives people strength, it makes them feel they are part of a community again. thank you so much for joining us and i want to bring in two members of the community we were just talking about the deputy

mayor pro tem eric wilson and council member kasie thomas. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having us. >> obvious question but i wonder how your communities are doing. how are people holding up? >> well, it's a difficult time for people. dallas is a resilient city and we're very faithful people and we're very committed to believing that things will get better. while we're grieving, we're grieving not as if there is no hope. the fact that things will get better and it's going -- it's going to take time, it's going to be a long process. >> eric, what do you think? can you even sort of put into some sort of context what's happened to your city over the last 48 hours? >> the best i can put it is why? and i say that because for a while we have been a model for the nation in terms of community and police relations. so the question is why? why us?

why now? we're not like most cities. we do have a past, but we've gotten better thanks to our police chief, chief brown, and his efforts to have programs like let's talk where we take students, troubled students or just students period and have a connection, a real heart to heart talk with police in the community and to understand that from the police side we want to understand who you are and from the community side we want to understand who the police are. >> did it occur to either of you when this protest was happening and people were coming out that it would be anything but haesful? >> no. as we've seen police were a part of the planning and it was an effort we've seen pictures where police officers and some of the demonstrators were smiling together and so i had no idea that anything was lurking in that type of way. >> so what's next? how do you take this and move forward as a community? >> we'll go back and review our

standards and make sure that we did everything that we are supposed to do and could have done, but this is not something -- again, this was a peaceful protest. we've had hundreds of peaceful protests, hundreds of protests where nothing happened. this was an act of an individual who was set on doing one thing and he managed to do that, create destruction and chaos, but we are a city that's coming together, built on love, supporting each other. i want to let the officers know that we support them, not only with an officer realm but as a community and as a city. >> whoever i've talked to in dallas black or white i've only heard praise for the police chief and what he's done and how he's brought community policing into your neighborhoods. this is a city that is known for the progress that has been made but personally when you heard what happened in baton rouge and when you heard what happened in st. paul, what did you think? >> here we go again.

we've had too many of these incidents that have occurred that have gone unprosecuted and so here we go again and what can we do to prevent another incident like this happening, dallas or anywhere else in the country. you know, what ks as must be taken, what process needs to be changed in terms of these investigations? do we need independent investigators who can investigate these cases and come back with a finding that will provide justice for so many of these families who have lost their loved ones. >> what can we do? >> i think it starts with the training. again, piggybacking off councilman thomas, it does deal with training, it deals with independent investigators. the officers that are wrong- and don't get me wrong, there are 99% great cops out there, but there are some bad cops out

there and that's in any profession. those individuals that are not right should be prosecuted to the law if they are not following the law that said -- and the standards that they are set to follow. >> well, i know it's going to be a long road ahead, it always is when tragedy strikes in a city, but i've also seen how powerful love can be and community can be and we're seeing out at the park tonight the people coming together. so thank you for taking the time to come out and our sympathies are with your city. >> thank you. and thank you for being here. >> councilman wilson, councilman thomas, thank you. those are the dallas city council members. and we're continuing to watch those demonstrations around the country. tonight let's take a look at the scene? st. paul where protesters have amassed on a highway. we will be right back.

we have been keeping our eye on that situation unfolding just a short time ago at the dallas police department headquarters,

an unidentified person racing past police officers into a parking garage across from hq. joining me now from dpd headquarters is nbc news correspondent tammy lighter in. how is the situation there now? >> reporter: things have calmed down, changed a lot from when this started. this started around 6:00 p.m. local time when they got a call of a suspicious person in a parking garage 100 yards to the east of me, actually behind the dallas police department. we've learned that this parking garage is owned by ibm and leased to the police department, where they park their squad cars, personal vehicles and undercover vehicles. there was a report there was a suspicious person in there. police took up position around the parking garage, they recently went through and searched it. first used their armor vehicle, went in on foot and searched it, finally sent in k-9 dogs and used the helicopter overhead. they cleared the three-story parking garage, they found

nobody, but this took about an hour and a half for them to search it and it is clear now things have resumed out here at the memorial, you can see that there's still a lot of people faergt out here, paying their respects. there have been people coming and going all afternoon. things started to die down a little bit in the afternoon when this situation was ongoing, but now it's picked back up. a lot of people just really want to go show their support not only for the dallas police officers but the dallas community. >> nbc's tammy lighter in at the memorial. thank you, tammy who has been reporting from there throughout this situation as it unfolded. the events of in dallas, of course, happening in the midst of a heated political campaign. neither donald trump nor hillary clinton were out on the campaign trail today, although both have responded to the horrific events of this past week. in an online video trump addressed the tragedy in dallas as well as the deaths of alton sterling and philando castile. >> a brutal attack on our police

force is an attack on our country and an attack on our families. we must stand in solidarity with law enforcement, which we must remember is the force between civilization and total chaos. every american has the right to live in safety and peace. the deaths of alton sterling in louisiana and philando castile in minnesota also make clear how much more work we have to do to make every american feel that their safety is protected. >> speaking in philadelphia last night, hillary clinton emphasized the need for compassion and empathy following this week's events. >> there is too much violence, too much hate, too much senseless killing, too many people dead who shouldn't be. we need to try as best we can to walk in one another's shoes.

to imagine what it would feel like if people followed us around stores or locked their car doors when we walked past. let's put ourselves in the shoes of police officers. kissing their kids and spouses good-bye every day and heading off to a dangerous job we need them to do. >> and joining me now bloomberg political reporter kevin certificate rily who is covering the trump campaign, daniel straws from "politico" who has been covering the hillary clinton campaign. thanks for being here. i have to say, kevin, a lot of people have been surprised by the relative restraint we have seen over the past several days from donald trump. are you? >> well, chris, we did hear him in the statement you just played not only reach out to the law enforcement community, which of course is something that he has done for several months now into his campaign, but we also heard him allude to alton sterling and

philando castile and that of course really did take some of his political critics by surprise. clearly this is part of a larger and more broader effort on the donald trump campaign's part to really shift tone and pivot from a primary election to a general election strategy. now, that being said, he did have a fundraiser earlier today in the hamptons, he will be back on the campaign trail on monday with a scheduled event in virginia, but this is a donald trump who has struck a much more measured tone following the horrific tragedies that we've seen over the last week. >> on the other hand, daniel, i think a lot of what we've seen from hillary clinton is pretty much what you would expect to see from hillary clinton in a situation like this. >> it is. you know, for a long time she's been actually talking about criminal justice reform, changing in police practices and really sort of addressing shooting incidents like the three we've seen in past days and weeks. so it's not so surprising that she's taking a somber tone here. this really just falls in line

with her previous reactions on horrific incidences like these. >> yeah, and somebody who has faced it as a diplomate and obviously as a senator, the washington examiner's phil kline tweeted this, he wrote, i actually feel this tragedy has thus far been less politicized than others, almost a collective despair on what's going on in the country. and when i read that, kevin, i thought one of the things about donald trump is he has been very good at reading mood, right? >> yes. >> i think a lot of his initial success was i watched him go into those rallies and you could see him playing off what people were reacting to. do you think in addition to him wanting to take a more measured tone or certainly members of his family and his staff wanting him to, that he is reading the country. >> well, two points. the first is that we have seen this, as you've said, after the paris attacks, after san

bernardino shooting, we've seen donald trump really tap into the frustration and candidly the anger of the american people during that primary where he did, of course, increase his lead. and now, you know, you said it again, i think that there is a collective despair in the country when we come to these issues. now, the second point that i would make, chris, is that i've spoken with trump sources just this weekend and within the african-american conservative leadership movement and what they told me is that they were urging donald trump to, again, adopt that tone, to again highlight and reach out to the victims of some of these shootings and he's done that. he has listened. so i think the question becomes how do we move forward? you know, hillary clinton has spoken about this as have the democrats on capitol hill for quite some time but there has been no deal. there has been no action. donald trump, the crux of his campaign argument is that he would be able to work with congress and make a deal.

whether or not the voters believe that of course remains to be seen. >> yeah, daniel, i guess the question really is how will this play out going forward. i think the conventional wisdom was going into the campaign that when there was a crisis in the country it would play to hillary clinton's strengths, it would play to her experience, it would play to that measured nature of who she is. how does this sort of play out as we go forward in this campaign? >> you know, it's going to be something i think we will hear about in debates and we will hear polly rollouts from both the trump and clinton campaign going forward, but in terms of surprise over sort of politicizing this event, we saw not so long ago the sit in on capitol hill of members of congress demanding new gun legislation. so if that couldn't create some new legislation, it's unlikely that any quick fix, any new speech by either campaign will solve the problem here. but i think later on in the campaign we're going to see acknowledgments that this is an

ongoing problem in the u.s. >> daniel straws, kevin cirilli thanks to both of you. we will have much more from dallas when we come back. we're continuing to monitor demonstrations around the country. watching the scene in new york city's union square. we will be right back.

this is a city where emotions are running deep. earlier today i was at that

memorial by police headquarters, a lot of people in tears. i saw texas attorney general ken paxton there, he came to pay his respects and made time to talk with me about these tragic events and the effect they're having on his community and his own family. >> obviously the shooter is dead but where else do you see this investigation going? >> you know, i think the thing you want to make sure of is that he didn't conspire with anybody else. i know the dallas police department is looking into those details and doing a great job. i'm really proud of their work and what they've already accomplished in a really short period of time. it's not going to be one of those things that's done in 48 hours which is where about where they're at. >> does your gut tell you there will be prosecutions. >> do you know what, i don't know. i think that time will tell on that. think about how can we make sure this doesn't happen again. i think the dallas police department has already been a part of doing that. they started reaching out. they were protecting protesters that were protesting against them. not only were they protecting them they ran into the line of fire.

that's an amazing story. run into the line of fire to protect people's free speech rights that disagree with you. i've talked to my wife and i have three daughters that are at home right now and it just makes me appreciate being around them and realizing that none of us are guaranteed another moment in life. we should all appreciate the time we have with our families. we never know when it's going to be over. >> are they okay? did they tell you they're scared? >> i think they realize this is a world where there is a lot of uncertainty. so, you know, one of my daughters is about to head off to europe to study for a month and a half. she goes off the last thing i told her is be safe. she said, you know i'm going to be safe. i said i want you to think about t be safe. >> does it worry you? >> absolutely. you can't help when you see something like this and the randomness of it and for no purpose this occurred, you always have concerns, especially about your children. >> that was texas attorney general ken paxton talking with me earlier today about crisis and the opportunities that come

in the face of this week's brutal attack on the officers of the dallas police department. we want to continue that conversation. joining me now congresswoman eddie bernice johnson who represents dallas and karen bass of california, secretary of the congressional black caucus. congresswoman thank you both for being here. you and i were talking earlier today and you heard him say how do we make sure this doesn't happen again. is there an answer to that? >> there are probably a number of answers. it's whether or not we can get to those answers. i think that if we could get some of these assault weapons off the street i think we could get to the answer. we've been trying to get to that answer for a while, though. reauthorization of the assault weapon ban would be helpful. i think another thing that we need to understand is that though this happened in dallas and we are in grief, this is a national problem. and we need to get assault

weapons off the street wherever they are. we've had 491 murders of police in this country this year as of june 30th. it is time for us to look at this seriously and forget about the nra. i mean, it seems to me that we are tied in knots because the national rifle association wants everyone to have a gun, i guess. and there's nothing wrong with people having guns. i believe in the second amendment, even though i disagree with the interpretation of it, i think it meant for the militia, however, i support people having guns but i think that it's a sensible level that we should be dealing with the number of guns that are on the street, especially when we are not dealing with the mental health of people in this country.

>> congresswoman bass, you know this well because of what happened in san bernardino. it hit home in your state. and i wonder what you think comes next and does what happened to two black men being shot and what happened to five police officers being mowed down, seven more ended up in the hospital, does it change the conversation? what happens next? >> well, you know, i certainly agree with my colleague that we need to look at guns and we need to pass legislation. i also think that one of the reasons why it's so devastating nationally when you have what happened to the two men is that time after time the shootings that the congresswoman referenced there is almost never a conviction. how do you explain a 12-year-old who was shot after ten seconds when police officers saw him, how do you explain some of the shootings that have happened and

never a police officer ever being convicted? those are the things that lead to hopelessness. the other thing is just the absolute denial and looking at the individual that died and trying to expose their behavior or say there was something wrong. now the officer from minnesota is saying, well, i stopped him because he looked like somebody that was suspected of committing a crime. that's what's always said. and so i think that we need to get over the denial and accept as a nation that these incidents happen, you cannot always blame a victim and that we need to look at retraining, we need to look at our police departments and we need to say actually let's lift up the model of dallas. dallas was known for its community-based policing, has been given high marks. we need to examine police departments where things are functioning well and figure out how to replicate that around the

country. >> in the minute we have left i want to ask both of you, then, really where it goes because we are in this hyper charged political season. so many people's jobs are up and you participated, congresswoman bass, in the sit in. >> yes. >> to draw attention to gun violence. and you heard republicans calling it a stunt. what do you do? if you feel as passionately as you do and as i know you do, congresswoman, what do you do? >> well, i think that we have to continue the protest. we have to continue to make our voices heard. and really i think when the public is so clear and rises up and says we're just not going to take it anymore, that's when you will see change happen. congress has to act. there's just no excuse anymore. >> and congresswoman and the emotion is running very high here and understandably so. >> yes. >> but how do you put that emotion into action?

>> well, i hope we can continue to try to get the attention of the people that we need to help bring about some action. we need the attention of the american people, but we certainly need the attention of our colleagues in congress. this is not a stunt. and we cannot stop. the pressure is too great. the need is too great. we must continue to call attention to the number of weapons, war weapons, on the street and we must change that. there's nothing else that we can do but to continue and we will continue. >> absolutely. >> we will continue because the people are demanding that we continue. >> congresswoman eddie bernice johnson thank you for coming over on this saturday night. it's always good to he so you, congresswoman bass, thank you so much. secretary of the cbc who has been as an organization talking about these issues for a very long time. and we will have much more ahead from dallas, but up next, what we know about the dallas shooter, including his time in the military. we will be right back.

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we're back live in dallas and gabe gutierrez reported at the top of this hour that there are new details out there about the military background of the man who shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven in dallas just a few days ago. he was an army reservist whose deployment in afghanistan was cut short after a female soldier accused him of sexual harassment and requested he get mental help. he was honorably discharged last year. joining me is retired u.s. army colonel jake jacobs. colonel, help us to understand this first. how would a sexual harassment complaint like this typically be handled? >> there would be an investigation by the command to determine whether or not the accusation had any merit. if it did have merit then one of a number of things could happen. usually there will be some discipline, but if it were

serious enough it would be referred -- there would be an article 32 investigation which is the military equivalent of the grand jury procedure and it would be referred to a courts marshall and a courts marshall it could be a judge. if he were found guilty he consent to jail for six months or even longer in which case he would get a very bad discharge. >> now, we talked to the lawyer who was representing him in this case and what he told us was that there had been conversations about a plea deal and under that plea deal he would have gotten a general discharge and, in fact, he wasn't sure why he was honorably discharged. are you surprised that happened? >> yes, i'm shocked that it happened and in the case there may be some malfeasance in the chain of command. whether there was a plea deal or not this kind of behavior usually does not result in an honorable discharge for which the recipient of the honorable

discharge is then capable of getting all the benefits that accrue to people in uniform who have received an honorable discharge. now, he could have received a general discharge or even a discharge under less than honorable conditions without getting a courts marshall and then he would have reduced benefits when he got out of the service, but to let him get away with an honorable discharge indicates perhaps some malfeasance among the chain of command, certainly laziness. it was interesting to look at his record and see -- we were all surprised when we looked at his record and discovered, in fact, he had only spent nine months overseas, was obviously let home early and when that happens it's for some reason. it's shocking, then, to discover that the reason was bad behavior and that instead of there being something else a judge, he was given an honorable discharge. i think there's some blame to go around. >> just really quickly, jack, if

there had been a court-martial would he have been able to get a gun? >> it depends. it depends on the state. usually what's required to prevent your ability to get a gun in most states is getting a dishonorable discharge which can only be a judged by a court-martial for a felony and which you would almost certainly undoubtedly spend time in a military prison. for all other discharges, even a discharge under less than honorable conditions or a general discharge in all the states i know you can go out and get a gun. so getting a discharge, any discharge other than a dishonorable discharge, would not have prevented him from going out and getting a gun. >> all of this among the questions that are being asked tonight here in dallas and across the country. colonel jack jacobs, as always thanks for being with us, my friend. >> you bet. >> and we will be right back.

among the five police officers killed that horrible thursday night is a 14-year veteran of the dallas police force. senior corporal lorne ahrens, married to a police detective and dad to a ten-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son who now will have to grow up without him. miami castro, a member of the dallas police department calls ahrens his good friend, they trained together and i spoke with him earlier tonight. >> how did you hear about what had happened? apparently he had gone into surgery, he actually was transported to the hospital, but after surgery there was a complication, he went back in and apparently by the time his wife got there he had passed. >> right. when i got to the hospital i was there with, you know, within minutes, and right away i'm

trying to figure out, you know, obviously there was chaos, the hospital was preparing for more people to arrive. i'm looking for dpd officers, you know, d.a.r.t. officers were there already, and the few officers that i did find weren't sure what was going on. i'm not sure who it is. i'm not sure who it is. so i come around the corner and i see one of the commanding officers and he had that look. he knew lorne and i were very close and he had that look and i was like, who is it? and he just kind of just grabbed me by the shoulder and he said it was lorne. you go through that state of like, no, it can't be him. i ran back to the front desk and i said, i need the name of the dpd officer right now. who is it? he just grabbed me and said, hey, it's him. i said are you seen him? have you laid eyes on him to confirm it's him?

he said, it's him. immediately you start praying and, you know, in disbelief and i wanted to be by his side. i said i need to be there. i don't want my -- my bud to be there alone and obviously, you know, those are things that you just can't control. but it was tough. it was really tough. >> what will you miss? >> him having my back. he was one of those guys just to keep it short, the minute i knew he had what -- he had passed his training so we're sitting in the bushes, believe it or not, we're conducting surveillance on these drug dealers and this is going to be his first raid where we're going to be leading the charge, him and i, and i tell him, hey, you know, you stick with me, you don't run anywhere, you stand behind me and i'm leading the charge, you know, just stay by my side and it's dark out there

and he kind of just taps me on the shoulder, he goes, i've got your back, brother. i will take a bullet for you. and i knew at that moment he had what it took to be a good officer. he understood the camaraderie and he -- i knew he was part of the family at that point and understood what it took to be a good dallas police officer. >> we've heard all these stories about how the officers were talking to the protesters and doing great community policing and then running toward danger. would it surprise you that he was that guy? >> no doubt. no doubt. once i started seeing the videos there was no doubt. i was like there's no doubt lorne would -- that's lorne and lorne is leading the charge. there was no doubt. he had those officers' backs, he had the citizens. he is one of those guys that i

don't care what beliefs he had, he was going to protect you and do everything he could to make sure you went home before he did. >> have you had a chance to talk to his wife? >> i have. and she's hanging in there. she's being strong for her kids. wonderful woman. i can't say -- i saw her go through the department as well. >> she is a detective. >> that's correct. and wonderful, wonderful woman. wonderful mother. she's holding on. she's being strong. >> how do you go forward? how do you go to work? how do you face the day? >> it's tough. it's tough. i have lost other friends in the department. i have going on 19 years in the department and you put that uniform on and you can't help but to think of those officers. you remember their legacies and all you can do it honor them by getting out there and working. you keep doing what you love and

you do it to the best of your ability and you serve and protect. >> what a tribute to his friend, my conversation with jaime castro, good friend of senior corporal lorne ahrens later this morning. the make shift memorial has been attracting a steady stream of people who wanted to pay their respects. i visited the memorial today and spoke with people there. >> you seem quite people snoonl well, yeah, it's tough on our club, we are a law enforcement, firefighter, vets bike club. whenever officers are hurt it hurts us. i mean, this is a senseless shooting and i think that people need to realize that all lives matter. and these men and women that go out every day for us are the reason why we're safe today and, you know, seeing that i don't feel so safe anymore when the

police are getting shot up. i mean, it's -- this is crazy. i think everybody needs to come together as, you know, citizens in this town. they need to all come together. i don't even know why when stuff happens in other towns and states that people would come down here and start -- start senseless shootings when there was nothing going on. this town has had great civil rights movements and i think this whole thing has kind of set it back a little bit. >> why did you want to come here today? >> because i had to pay my respects. it's just important that i think everybody should come out. if you love the police, if you love dallas and if you are a good citizen you should be here. >> what made you want to be here today? >> i don't really know. i just came. maybe some answers, maybe some

closure, maybe some -- i don't know. i don't know what made me come. i just came. >> what goes through your head when something happens like what happened here? >> it needs to stop. it needs to stop. i mean, it's -- there's no words that can explain it. it needs to stop. >> i just wonder why you came here today. >> well, i'm from anaheim, i'm here for a funeral, my godson and i just wanted to come up here and pay my respects and see this community outreach. i can remember as a kid watching john kennedy get shot in dallas, i was a third grader and we are back again in dallas and the community is strong. they are going to get through this. wonderful people here. as a matter of fact, there was two gentlemen, black gentlemen who told me how to go here, walked me right up to the police station and said, hey, brother, we're going to get along. i said, we are.

>> it never ceases to amaze me. i come to the scene of a mass shooting and i've been to far too many it seems like just days ago that i was in orlando that there are so many wonderful people out there and how communities come together. i'm chris jansing in dallas, msnbc's coverage of the tragedy here will continue after this.

as painful as this week has been i firmly believe that america is not as divided as some is suggested. hello. i'm here at msnbc headquarters in new york. president obama capped what has been a