use dulcolax tablets for gentle overnight relief suppositories for relief in minutes and stool softeners for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax, designed for dependable relief . we are waiting a 2:00 p.m. news conference in dallas. also the white house briefing later this hour where we will learn more about the president's trip to dallas tomorrow. that's the news for this hour on msnbc. i'm kristen welker. a programming note. don't miss lester holt talking with vice president joe biden at 4:30 eastern here on msnbc. thomas roberts picks things up now. . good to have you with me, i'm thomas roberts. ahead this hour, new revelations about the gunman behind the deadly attack on dallas police. that city's police chief speaking about the ambush a spoke time ago. what he said about the last moments of the rampage and what was found inside the gunman's

home. this as tensions continue to boil across the country. hundreds arrested in black lives matter protests. i'm going to speak with an activist who witnessed the clashes in louisiana. and trump addressing the ambush of dallas police officers for the first time just a few minutes ago in virginia. >> they often do it thanklessly and under relentless criticism. >> calling himself the law and order candidate. more on those remarks in just a few minutes. we begin this hour with new information about the suspect who killed five dallas police officers and wounded nine others. a visibly exhausted police chief who said he's running on fumes updated the press on the investigation. 13 officers engaged in the standoff, but ultimately it was an explosive device from police that terminated the threat of the suspect. now officers are combing through hundreds of hours of video

including police body cams to police together what happened. investigators say they have evidence suggesting the shooter was plan ining a much larger attack. a stockpile was found in his home and said there's no proof that the shooter acted alone. . >> we're going to turn over every rock and follow every lead until it's exhausted and i'm satisfied this was the lone person. there's a lot of questions. it's very complex. this person had some delusion. this person also was very committed to killing officers. we just don't know how the bombing aspect of his plans were going to play out. we're looking for those answers and the concern is that we haven't found something that's out there. every side of failure, not enough mental health funding.

>> the deadly dallas attack simmering protests across the nation. most of them were peaceful. there were pockets of unrest. 200 protesters arrested in baton rouge and minneapolis including one of the most prominent voices of the movement. now free from police custody, they spoke to kristen welker. >> it's clear to me and so many other residents of baton rouge how did this police department has gotten away with its power being unchecked for far too long. we have seen over the last couple days that the police provoke protesters. i was out there when protesters had not blocked the street and there was no on the part of the protesters that police are the only violent people i have seen since my time here in baton rouge. >> a lot of movements for all these stories. we have reporters covering all the angles.

police are still investigating the scene of the attack. we are expecting an update from the hospital so we may break away to go to that update in a moment. explain what we learned about the background of the shooter today. >> first of all, thomas, this is a massive investigation. we know they are making progress in this investigation. so far, they have interviewed 300 witnesses. this still doesn't include all of the police officers who were witnesses to the shooting. they also need to go through the surveillance video of the building's voupding and go through the body cam videos as well as the dash cam video. we know that's about 170 hours. all of this should build some type of picture of how this shooting went down and who the shooter was. we know that he served in the military. in 2014 he was in afghanistan and a fellow female soldier accused him of sexual harassment. she asked that a mental health

evaluation be conducted. no criminal charges were filed, but he was honorably discharged from the military in 2015. this all brings into question his mental status. we know that during the last few hours when the negotiations broke down that police said he was singing. he was laughing. he was taunting officers. so, of course, his mental health is going to be questioned. his parents for the first time have spoken out. they reached out to the blaze and his mother and father said we love our son, but we hate what he did. let's listen to their interview. >> the military was not what micah thought it would be. >> it disappointed him. >> he was very disappointed. very disappointed. but it may be that the ideal that he thought of our government, of what he thought the military represented it just department live up to his expectation. >> and his parents said that

they noticed a visible change in his behavior after he was discharged from the army. hefgs a fun loving extra investigator and turned into a hermit. >> tammy leitner reporting in dallas. just to pass along to everybody. the dallas hospital where those wounded in the attack on thursday are being treated, we expect to hear from hospital officials to give us an update on the conditions of those wounded. minneapolis/st. paul was the other flash point. protesters there shut down a highway. that city has to grapple with its own police shooting. so talk about the protesters and are they going to face charges for what they did this weekend? >> the city attorney has until 10:00 tonight to decide whether to charge them. that's how long he can hold those protesters without charges. there were 102 arrests in total over the weekend. 50 of those arrests came from the highway shut down.

certainly factoring into the city attorney's decision will be the fact that officers repeatedly warned those protesters more than a dozen times to leave the freeway or face arrest. they ultimately were arrested. police say during the freeway protest, they had objects hurled at them. the most serious injury was a broken vertebrae after one of the officer hs a piece of concrete dropped on his head. this was a serious escalation of things over the weekend. the mother of the black man killed last week whose shotting sparked all these protests spoke out against the violence saying when demonstrations become violent it disrespects my son and his memory. she's asking for the protests to remain calm. we have just learned that the funeral for cast stihim his bod

will be taken by horse and carriage to the school where he worked for a reception. >> blake mccoy, thank you so much. and as blake mentioned, those protests were sparked by the death of cast teal. they were pulled over for a simple police stop and she spoke to my colleague tamron hall a short time ago. take a listen. >> i'm joined by diamond reynolds and her attorney, thank you both for joining us. >> thank you for having us. >> diamond, our thoughts are with you like so many other people as this investigation continues. a lot of focus has been on you and what you have been able to reveal about this. how do you process it at this point? >> i'm just trying to stay strong for my daughter's sake. she wouldn't want to see me crying. phil wouldn't want me to be hurt

ing. he would want me to be strong to spread the word and get the justice he deserves. i would like for people to understand that we don't bring these types of situations upon ourself and even still we can't result to violence and outrage. >> i know a lot about what happened wednesday night. your attorney will answer for you and this investigation is ongoing. but when you see the video that you uploaded for the world to see, does it even seem real at this point? >> every day i have said it before coming here it still doesn't seem real. it's very hard to deal with and cope with, but i know that in the end i'm going to get justice and that's what i believe in. >> in the video, you remain incredibly calm. it's almost hard to believe that in that circumstance that an individual could remain that

calm. what were you thinking you needed to do and why did you feel that you needed to control that situation the way with that camera? >> i felt as though i'm a nobody. and i felt by the police doing what they did, only way to get my word justified or to get my boyfriend what happened out there was to post the video. it was very dramatic. it was kind of scary to post it, but i was able to remain calm for my daughter's sake. because i knew at the end of the day it was going to be the law enforcement's word over mine. >> i think what's significant about that as well is citizens, in particular african-americans, believe they won't be believed. so they can witness and experience these types o of situations and they immediately grab cell phones to say don't just listen. see what's happening to me.

the unique aspect of what happened to diamond here is she had the live stream so it was realtime. it's clear that she documented exactly what happened. not from the time she turned on the phone but she detailed exactly what happened leading up to when the phone was turned on. so it's absolutely a contempraneous description of what happened. >> diamond, can you tell me at what point during the traffic stop that you felt you needed to document this? was there something that happened that made you think, i won't be believed. i have to record this? >> absolutely. from the time the police officer walked up, i'm all about energy. i'm all about vibes. the instandpoint that i was able to record that i would so that you know they would be able to

decipher the real from the fake. >> an attorney representing the officer has been identified says that he was reacting to the presence of that gun and the display of that gun. >> absolutely incorrect. there was no visible -- there was never any visibility of the gun. there was never anything about it so that's absolutely incorrect. he was very laid back. he complied. he did exactly what he was told and that was only license and registrati registration. >> i would add anything that he is suggesting was not droib ed y the officer at the time. the officer heard what she was doing, saw what she was doing. she was complying with one hand while recording it, describing what had just happened and he never said anything of that nature or refuted anything she described in the video. >> when you saw the news reports, and i know you have by

now, the discussion that phil had been pulled over multiple times, but somehow his background was being pulled into the conversation. what did that do to you emotionally? >> emotionally, it definitely made me feel sad because we are not perfect. no one in this world is perfect. everyone has made mistakes. but the mistakes you have made in your past don't determine who you are as a person. he was pulled over each and every single time for racial profile. >> i suggest if you look at the number of times he was pulled over, it fits the statistics that african-americans more often than white males are pulled over by the police. black males more often than white males are likely to be searched by the police. they are two and a halftimes more likely to be shot by police. so those arrests would bear out what happened.

he had -- those were not arrests, they were traffic citations. he had no arrest record whatsoever. he was a person working for 15 years. he was simply being profiled, i would suggest. mayor dayton described what he interpreted when he saw the vid you. racism had something to do with this. >> when you heard that a city leader would say if you were not a black couple that we would not perhaps, meaning this country, we would not have seen that play out the way it did. >> i absolutely agree with him. we have said it many times before. and i absolutely am backing him up on that. i agree if we were caucasian or minority, we would not have stopped. >> we want to take you back to dallas. an update on those wounded in

the attack thursday night on city police. >> during that evening, there were already almost 300 people in the emergency room at the time that this event started. and over the course of the four or five hours while it was all happening, another 134 patients came through the emergency room doors. it's a testament to this hospital and the people who serve this community at this hospital for the care that they delivered to all thoeds in the setting of this tragedy. i'd like to help -- i'd like to thank the health care community nationally. we received an outpouring of support from across the kocount of many, many health care systems, too many to name and we're thankful for the support that they have given us.

the health care community at a time like this also comes together the way a community does, the police community did and we as a community also are supporting each other through this difficult time. with that, i'd like to open up to any of my other colleagues who might like to give a comment. >> again, i'm brian williams. i want to state first and foremost i stand with the dallas police department. i stand with law enforcement all over this country. this experience has been very personal for me. a turning point in my life. there was an added dynamic of officers being shot.

but the days of more black men dying at the hands of police officers affected me. i think the reasons a obvious. i fit that demographic of individuals. but i agree with their families. i understand the anger and the frustration and distrust of law enforcement. but they are not the problem. the problem is the lack of open discussions about the impact of race relations in this country. i think about it every day that i was unable to save those cop

when is they came here that night. it weighs on my mind constantly. this killing has to stop. black men dying and being forgotten, people retaliating. we have to come together and end all this. aye like to open it up for questions. >> can you describe the scene of the emergency room that night? 300 people and another 134. >> that scene was pretty well controlled. i said it's routine for us to care for multiple trauma victims

at the same time. so it was business as usual for us. we had to flex to accommodate the people coming in. i cannot comment on that. they do their job. they did it effectively. >> if i could respond to that. there were 17 trauma patients that came through the trauma center from 7:00 p.m. that night to 7:00 a.m. obviously, seven of those were from the police department. three came by ambulance and the rest came by private vehicle. when we know we have a patient coming in and we stand up and prepare and have the trauma team fully activated, the first patient that arrived arrived in a private car. we did not know that patient. when that patient arrived shs

the trauma team stood up full activation and shortly behind that came another patient. dr. williams were our trauma surgeons in charge that night. the trauma nurses, many of them that are standing behind you, did their jobs as we normally do. the difficulty in that situation is we were also accepting other trauatients as we came in. they made a request for transfers. patients who were critical referred those to our faculty except those patients. in a typical trauma activation, there's 15 people that respond to that room including the trauma faculty, trauma nurses, radiology and a whole group of individuals that are very debt indicated and knowledgeable to trauma care. that was very evident that night from the housekeeping all the way to our trauma surgeons, those patients were our number one priority.

>> you said you treat eed serve police officers that night? >> we had no civilians come through related to the shootings. >> can you talk a little bit about the stress following the days of the shooting within the police department or for officers in general and how are they doing? >> sure. i think we have been as a department incredibly busy in the days since thursday night. i don't think any of us, i know none of us have had time to decompress and process yet because our operational assignments have continued to keep the city safe and to respond to a number of things that have occurred since

thursday night. the chief said it best this morning. we're hurtin weall hurting. i think this has rocked some guys to their core who i thought were unshakable. if you asked me last year at this time would i ever thought i'd see us shaken like this after the headquarters attack, many of us thought that was the incident of our careers. and this makes that pale in comparison. i have operational responsibilities in the s.w.a.t. unit, but part of job in the department overall is to make sure that every one of our 3700 or so officers gets exactly what they need in the aftermath of something like this. i just can't thank the community enough for their support and what's come to our substations and headquarters and here at the

hospital it has been nothing short of remarkable. to the guys sitting next to me here, no words can describe how i feel about them, this place, what it was like that night. i came here as soon as i wrapped things up on the scene. i came straight here to make sure that my partners and friends were okay. i found anything but when i got here. i think one of the things, like the police department, the trauma center here is a family. we look after each other and take care of one another and we're never better than when we're challenged together. i can't ever imagine facing something worse than this again.

but if we have to, i'll be very glad to have the men and women of this best trauma center in the country to stand with me. >> have you all been able, the chief today mentioned the need for counselling. perhaps even mandatory counselling. is that part of anything that's already in place or would that be something completely new? how does that work? >> i'm going to refer you back to the police department. we have a robust psychological services section that helps us deal with post-incident trauma. chief brown has been a national leader in crafting post critical incident stress management program. we actually presented on this topic together at the international station of chiefs of police meeting last year with our posse, but i'm going to let

the department handle the specifics of those. >> the initial calls came in, did anyone think that to what happened in orlando just a few weeks ago and was there a concern that perhaps it could be of that kind of magnitude? >> often when you get these initial calls, the communications and information is often stamping or sketchy or really not reliable. so we have a protocol here that we gear up expecting the worst, hoping for the best, that we had minimal to no casualties, but as they come through the door, we geared up to our maximum capacity. we had more surgeons here than we had those injured. >> did everybody go back to work the next day? was there any sort of time to

sort of process any of this and kind of did you have to go back to running the hospital? >> i'll take that stantly on th go ever since. the incident was thursday into friday. we had more on saturday. i missed my son's birthday party on saturday because duty called and i don't think any of us have had a chance to stop yet. in fact, i'm the trauma surgeon on call for us right now. i think we will have time, but one of the things that i know is that right now there are people here that need our help. this city needs us to keep pressing forward. and i think what brian said is exactly right. this is a time for all of us to come together because the path forward from here doesn't

involve focusing on how different we are. the path forward involves the fact that when we have to do what we do and when you look down on someone who is you're exploring in the operating room, we all look the same on the inside. there's no difference. so we've got to move forward. >> as health care experts, you all are moving forward, but at the same time you're all healing and grieving. so how do you afford topnotch care while caring for yourself first, mental self-care? you know trauma. you see it every day. but perhaps this is different. >> i appreciate that concern how we're doing. for me this is one of the most difficult times in my life. but i recognize that no matter what i'm going through right now

compared to the families of the officers and the victims that were killed this last week it's thing. yes, i want some time off. i have been going nonstop since thursday night. but those families have lost people very important to them. the victims in baton rouge and minneapol minneapolis. so it's hard for me to complain about my life right now in comparison to theirs. >> i guess my question was geared toward a complaint but more of really taking care of yourself mentally. even as a department, as a team of surgeons. >> i think we pride ourselves on

the fact that we're a family. we talk amongst ourselves frequently. a bigger component of that is being a department. the nurses, the other providers have had such an outpouring of support. hey, can i talk? i was on call. i was on call on saturday. and everyone i met said, hey, great job, tough job, anything i can do to help you. so i think as us it helps to have -- to be able to confide with our partners and discuss what we went through and how things ran and went smoothly and that helps us. throughout our training, we learn to compartmentalize. this is very difficult to compartmentalize. you can see that all of us are showing signs that we're not doing a great job of that, but beyond that, we have everyone in this entire building has got our back. and that means a lot. and so knowing that we still have things to do and have to

move forward, i think time is only going to make this better. it's like losing a best friend. it's going to take time to get over it. part of getting over it, though, is moving forward with what we have to do on a day-to-day basis. i got a lot of recovery on saturday taking care of all the trauma patients and general surgery patients kind of gave me an opportunity to focus on the things that i do well and not necessarily have to think about the families that are missing people and the other people in the department that have lost colleagues and friends as well. so that has given me an opportunity to move forward. alex hasn't had that chance. brian is maybe today is getting some time off from some of the responsibilities. but that's i think how we do it. and every corner i go around, i

see someone smiling at me and offering to shake my hand. i like to think not only are we a family, but the department as a whole is also my family. i'm thankful for that. >> i've also been leaning on my wife quite a bit during this time. she's been incredible. >> all of our spouses are special people. they recognize and come along with us to get to where we are. they have grown with us. if they with respeeren't a huge we couldn't do the jobs we have. >> when i got here on friday morning early, it was probably 3:00 in the morning, 3:30. i was pretty ragged out from what we had just been through

downtown. but i had to come here to see how the family was doing on this end. the first group of people i bumped into were some of our trauma nurses who are standing in the back. i could tell that they were relieved that i was okay. but i also was relieved that they were okay. we do have a lot of healing to do. but the one thing i know is that when times are tough, we do it together. and i think we have all talked, hugged, loved each other over the last few days. for me, where i haven't had a real chance to sit down and compose my thoughts, nearly everyone in this room that's not behind the camera called me, text me, checked on me, made sure i was okay. brought their families to the

house, whatever i needed. and i think that's what this place is all about. and we'll always be about. no matter what you have heard, read, through our ups and downs, the one thing that's been a constant here is that we pride ourselves on doing whatever, whenever. it doesn't matter. we just take care of the patients who present that need us. and i think over the last few days, some of us have needed each other more than ever and i'm proud to say i can count on the people up here and across the board to do that. >> can you guess how many caregivers were there in the trauma center at the height of when everything was going on? and did anyone come to work voluntarily when they heard about what was going on? >> there were surgeons who were

in the hospital at the time completing their duties who did not have a responsibility in the trauma center who came down to help. i came in, we had an army of surgical residents as well here. the number of nurses, i don't even think i could count. there were more than enough people to care for the seven people that came through the door. i couldn't even count how many it was. >> there were still other traumas coming in during that time. >> if i could comment too, parkland has had many experiences. our disaster medical director so this trauma center is very

capable of handling any type of disaster. so we have exercised it and planned it. we have done it and responded and ask ourselves what didn't work, what did work and revisit that and retrain ourselves. so this experience and our response is a perfect example of that training and how we look at ourselves very critically and ask what needs to be changed. the response we activated the code yellow level three response, which means that everybody is in the house responds. we don't specifically reach out for a lot of other resources to come in from the outside. we manage this. trauma nurses that work with me were on spot. they knew exactly what to do. we create small teams. every patient got the very best of care whether they were from the shooting or the motor vehicle crash that was transferred. after the event, we began to figure out what worked, what didn't work and we're already

doing that process. we met today in a briefing of the event. and we asked what do we need to do different for the next one. we're already looking at changes for that. >> what type of changes? >> our changes are almost always communication related. so in this particular event, there were a lot of people, as you heard, do i come back, do i not come back. we have new staff members that hadn't worked with us in a previous event so we addressed that in a code yellow. you don't come back to this hospital unless you're called. >> we heard at one point the hospital said we can't take anymore trauma. is that confirmed? >> that's not true. i think dr. williams screened the calls whether to come to this facility or not. we did not stop care at all.

>> i was still receiving calls for patients. and our representative transfers came to me and asked should we stop transfers. and my response to her was, no, we don't shut down. >> i will add to that. as trauma medical director, we track this here. and i can tell you in the last three years we have not spent one minute on trauma divert here. we have been open continuously through everything that has struck this community over the last three years, whether it was ebola, shootings, mass casualty incidents, flooding, chaos, mayhem, whatever has been here, the doors don't close here. and we take that very seriously as in our role of the safety net hospital in this community and as the flagship level one trauma

center to make sure that we're always available. >> can you talk at all about the nature, without specifics of course, but the nature of any of the types of wounds that you all were faced with? >> we can't get into that kind of information about that. >> captain, we'd like to hear from you what that night was ke. >> well, it was extremely traumatic. when i first was at home getting ready to lay down for the evening, i was watching the news like most people were to see what was happening downtown and listening to the radio. heard the shots on tv. i told my wife that i needed to go. and of course, she tried to talk me out of it. i live a few minutes from here. i pulled up the same time we started receiving patients. as the night wore on, it became

evident how bad this incident had occurred. there was a question asked about staff and were they willing to come in. this happened just before our shift change so we were fortune that we had two shifts of officers here, but the officers that already put their time in wouldn't leave. our main objective was to make sure that this facility was safe, that we had received multiple unconfirmed reports of multiple shooters, we didn't know if we would receive one of the shooters. so we stood up and we handled what we had to handle. e we kept everybody safe. i think it was after it was all over with and i got home that it really hit. but the support from the parkland family has been

overwhelming. the e e-mails, the food and everything that our department has received has just been sp spiritually uplifting for us. that's what we were dealing with. >> i take it this is going to stay with you for the rest of your life? >> i have been in law enforcement over 20 years. this is the worst thing i've ever seen. and we see a lot of trauma come through here. we work in the e.r. along with these guys making sure everybody is safe. this is probably the worst thing i have seen come through here. it's shaken us. it's shaken me to the core. so we all have a lot of healing to do. it's very hard. i think one of the toughest things i have ever had to do was stand outside the rooms of those fallen guys providing security e detail and then taking them out to be transferred to the m.e.'s officers through the line of officers for their fallen

comrade. that's one of the most difficult things i have ever done. so it will take some time and we'll get through it. >> a lot of people shaking their heads at that. was that perhaps the most or one of the most difficult moments of that night? >> it was. i stepped out about maybe 3:00. i was coming back. when i stepped out i was getting ready to go across the street to my office to get cleaned up. but one of the most amazing things that it i will take away from that night along with the sorrow is going out on that pad and seeing all the police cars, all of the ambulances, all the providers that were there. that thing was packed. it was like trying to get out of a concert hall. there was so many people who had come here, flocked here to try to help and take care of people.

i was in awe. it was truly an amazing scene. i came back over about 4:00 when the honor guard was there. there was still just as many. they had to move people out of the way to be able to take the bodies. so it kind of was a mixed emotion at that point. all of what had happened still weighing on our souls, but the overwhelming support that was there was pretty amazing. i still remember looking at that just shake mig head going, this is so incredible. i just think that was a highlight of a night with a lot of low lights. >> i'd like to add to that. when that all occurred and those dallas officers were in here, they were obviously dealing with the loss of their loved ones and

their partners and our department had this overwhelming sense of need to protect them. and our officers let them know that we had their backs, that they could stand down. they could take care of what they needed to with their officers that were injured and with the ones that were deceased. to all of my officers, they have expressed that need to be there and to take care of those guys while they were grieving and dealing with what they were dealing with. so just very proud of the way that we stood up and dealt with this as a whole team. and support to those who really needed us. >> does anyone here were able to have a moment with a counsellor or anything like that? >> yes, obviously, with it being police officers that were shot

that impacted my guys tremendously. they are seeing this firsthand. i think we all know when we do this job, there's a chance we may not come home. it became real that night for a lot of our guys. two shifts of our guys. and so we have asked that our pastoral care come to our roll calls. we have had briefings and made sure anybody that is in need of any counselling that it's available to them. so yes, we have been very proactive in making sure our guys are taken care of. >> i'm still working on a real dinner at a dinner table. i haven't made that yet. i'm going to try to do that first and reevaluate from there. so meals have been eaten in squad cars and standing around and on the go. so once i get that done, i'm going to do that and go for a

run after that and regroup from there. >> have you use the services yourself? >> i have not. i haven't felt the need to do that. i have had a few good cries dealing with it and trying to get the emotions out. i u took my uniforms to the tailor and wept in there and the ladies playing music "wind beneath my wings" and right there i just broke down. so it's just a process. i'm getting through it. even though i haven't sought services yet, i'm processing it. >> talk about the emotional impact. it's much more complicated for me personally because it's not just about that one night. it's about the racial undertones

that impact all of this. it began for me much longer than those cops came through the door that evening. i don't know what i'm going to do about that, but right now it's certainly u a struggle. there's this dichotomy where i'm standing with law enforcement but i also personally feel and understand that angst that comes when you cross the paths of an officer in uniform and you're fearing for your safety. i have been there and i understand that. but for me, that does not condone disrespecting or killing police officers. it's something that i'm struggling with constantly. i truly don't know what i'm going to do next. >> do you have any children? >> yes, i do.

i have a daughter. i make sure i do simple things when i'm out in public. when i see police officers eating at a restaurant, i pick up their tab. one time a year ago i bought one of the dallas pd officers some ice cream. i want my daughter to see me interacting with police that way so she doesn't grow up with the same burden that i carry when it comes to interacting with law enforcement. i want the dallas police officers to see me, a black man and understand that i support you. i will defend you. and i will care for you. that doesn't mean that i do not fear you. that doesn't mean that if you approach me, i will not merely have a visceral reaction and start worrying for my personal safety. but i will control that the best i can and i'd like that to

impact how i deal with law enforcement. >> i'd like to say something to your credit. during our critical incident debriefing that occurred after this happened, dr. williams got up and spoke to the leadership of the hospital. i think as a law enforcement officer, i understand what he's saying. but one of the things that stood out to me that made me respect dr. williams so much is he said when those three police officers came through the door that not even for a second did he think about anything that was going on or that it compromised him caring for them no differently than he would anybody else. and that, to me, was very reassuring that he was willing to set aside any personal feelings that he had and that he was going to care for hothose gs with everything he had. i appreciated that.

>> i'll take it one step further. brian and i are like the rest of the guys here, we are close. we don't just say that to entertain you. we work together, we play together, we vacation together, our families know one another. our wives know one another, our children know one another. i think as i watched us all struggle through this, brian and i have had some very long hugs and beginnings of some really challenging conversations about how we move forward from here. and i think it's interest iing that two guys who truly love each other and i know he would do anything for me and i would do anything for him have such very different takes on how this all comes together. but i think what's been awesome

for me is both of our resolves to move the discussion forward and to help turn what is truly a senseless act sbo something that helps us as a city, helps us as a family, and helps us as a country move forward from here. >> going from there, the international spotlight is on dallas right now. what do you want people around the world to know about dallas? >> well, i think listening to chief brown earlier today in his statements, i think he was on point in that we have to come

together as a city, as a community not black and white and hispanic, but as a community to figure out how to go forward. i think his words certainly resinated with me. and hopefully out of this it tragedy there will be some good that will come out of it and we will be able to make meaningful steps forward as a community in race relations and in caring for each other. and i think you can see here amongst this group that we don't see each other as black or white. we see each other as a family of surgeons who is out there to care for the community.

>> the chief again is a graets guy to work for. he's been unbelievable. what he said this morning was dead on. but i'll tell you what i hope people get from this that we will not let hate drive this discussion. we won't let acts of gun violence drive this discussion. we won't let this city be known for a hateful act that occurred here. i think what's going to come from this and what i hope comes from this is that people who never before talked to one another or hugged one another, doesn't matter black, white, surgeon, not, we don't care. it doesn't matter. this city is going to come together and show the world exactly what we're made of and that's what's happening right now.

>> i'm just so proud of this team and this staff. it's not easy to be vulnerable. it takes a lot of courage to be vulnerable. i think you see amongst this team the amount of vulnerability that they have shown through this. typically when you're dealing with workers, they tend to be stoic. we can roll with it and do whatever is necessary. and we can. we're good in tragedy. but really there's the human and emotional side. i think take wag from this what i've been so proud of. it's the quality of the human beings and all the people that helped support this tragedy and the human side that you all hear today. it takes courage to be vulnerable. i'm very proud of that. you see that with our surgeons

and with our staff. we really support each other. i think the human factor has really come through here. i see it in dallas and i see it throughout the system. we love our patients and do everything we can to take care of them. it takes hard work and i think it was evident these past days. >> how are the nurses doing? >> i think it's struggling. it takes an emotional toll. i do think some people may not feel they need counselling now. they are going to need it two weeks from now or three weeks from now. each person is different. but we're still struggling. >> i'll say one last thing from

my standpoint. it's hard for me to put this into focus of the national attention of what's going on with race relations. i like to think and i think we are -- we don't care what color you are, what race, when you come here you're a patient and we do the best to take care of you as we possibly can. i think that's how we live our life and that's how we treat each other. it's hard for me to put in context when there's still people who don't treat people that way. it's almost unbelievable to me. and so that's kind of where i am. i think that's where we are as a whole. probably brian with your background is different, but certainly with the way we are as a group together, i think that's what we are.

so you come here, we're going to take care of you. >> i know that's what we are. and i don't think i know. as the person up here who wears a couple different hats, i'm a dallas police officer and i'm proud of that. but i'm a parkland trained surgeon. i'm a home grown product. i have spent my whole career in the walls of this building or the one across the street. and i think that there's no finer group that i would walk this with again. none. >> any final questions? we're going to wrap it up. thank you very much. >> thank you, guys. >> so we have been listening to

the trauma team there talking about what it was like for them. this team to go through the care of officers that were being brought in in police vehicles. they were already a packed house. it was business as usual, as they said. but having to go into this advanced mode of trauma care for these critical officers after being shot there thursday night. you have been hearing from dr. brian williams talking about the conflict that he feels not just as a doctor, but as a person because he fears the police, respecting law enforcement, but he feels a little conflicted about what all this means. the fact that he's saving the lives of police officers injured. chris jansing is on the scene there in dallas. president obama comes tomorrow. but this was fascinating to hear their perspective. >> reporter: i thought it was extraordinary. i have seen a lot of these press conferences. on two levels, i thought it was deeply raw and striking. first, on the level of people who deal with trauma every

single day. surgeons, hospital workers, police, who talk about this being different and how this is so deeply affected them, but also what you said about dr. brian williams. you have a black surgeon and doctors, surgeons, one of the most exalted professions, admired professions in our country and he has this very real emotion that you have white police officers coming in and he says, i will respect you, i will treat you, that doesn't mean i don't fear you. i want to bring in robert morris with the next generation action network, which is the organizer of the march here thursday that ended in so much bloodshed. thank you for being here. i want to get your reaction to what you heard from dr. williams there. >> i think he gave some powerful statements. two things here. number one, he gave an example of a black man in america on a

different class from most blacks, yet he said i'm still afraid. even though i may live in a different neighborhood, i may be around different people in my circle, i'm still afraid for my life from police officers, but i'm still going to do my job. i think that can be a good example that police officers should put in their books because even if they are in a community around people they are not familiar with, they may be afraid, yet they still have a duty to do. instead of coming out of those neighborhoods with more death, we should be going into those neighborhoods saying i'm going to do my job and protect you so you live. >> the other amazing thing to me, listening to him talk to his colleague and his colleague said we are great, great friends. we don't just work together. our families know each other. we go to vacations together. our kids are friends, our wives are friends and this has started some difficult conversations. where do you see these

conversations going? can this make a difference? >> i believe it can. it is a difficult conversation. but a much needed conversation. i think that what they are doing with this conversation here is, again, letting folks know each us as surgeons treating the folks coming to this trauma room we still understand what's going on out there in the streets. we need to make sure that we pay attention and america still pays attention to what's going on to the officers and those who are not officers as well. >> robert morris, thank you for being our guest. thomas, a big part of that conversation, as you know, will start tomorrow. you mentioned it, not only president obama, vice president biden, president george bush will be here. having talked to so many people here over the last several days, they are looking to our president to be the consoler in chief and to set the tone for this conversation going forward. as