we have sara sidner with breaking details. sara. >> reporter: chris, the scene here is still an active one. we are still seeing lots of police officers behind me. if you will look, you can see the lights flashing. this is main street. we are in the middle of downtown. the bank of america building with the big green lights behind me. just a couple blocks down is el centro college. the parking garage and building. what we hear from witnesses are large flash bangs and s.w.a.t. teams were going in and they saw bomb-sniffing dog going in. that is where they believe the shoot errer or shooters are at time. we are waiting to hear if they are able to neutralize that shooter. we are at five police officers who have lost their lives in the shooting. six officers are wounded. i want to let you go ahead and listen to some of the dramatic moments of how this all unfolded earlier this evening. [ gunshots ] >> blacks, whites, latino. everybody here. a mixed community protesting. this just came out of nowhere. >> somebody is armed to the teeth

i want to get to the ground, sara sidner is live in dallas. ara. >> reporter: some new numbers coming to us. it is now 12 officers who have been shot, according to the mayor's office. there were two civilians who were wounded. so those are things that a lot of us haven't heard yet. two sieve i wicivilians, five od not make it out alive. a lot of people grieving in this town, not only the families of the police officers and the police departments, two police departments, including the bay area rapid transit department who lost their first officer in the line of duty during this shooting. the shooting was unbelievably loud, and we heard from witnesses exactly what they heard and saw as all of this was going down around 9:00 at night. chaos erupts on the streets of dallas at 9:00 p.m. >> somebody is armed to the t. >> gunshots raining down from the sky. officers taking cover. >> move back! get back! >> reporter: protesters scattering in panic, as their peaceful march wound down. >> i would say about 20 gunshots. >> i was screaming, run, run, run,

days before this tragedy because you're here, because dallas is a city that loves. >> reporter: sara sidnercoming up live in the newsroom, president obama speaking candidly about race and the violence we've witnessed this week across america. and his own legacy on race relations. that's coming up right at the top of this hour. ♪ ♪ [engine revving] want to know what makes us, us? by the time other people start doing what we've been doing, we've already moved on. the lexus gs 350 f sport, with better overall handling performance than the bmw 535i m sport. ♪ [so i use quickbooks and run mye entire business from the cloud. i keep an eye on sales and expenses from anywhere. even down here in the dark i can still see we're having a great month. and celebrate accordingly. i run on quickbooks.that's how i own it. >>> lastly this hour, i want to show you just some of the messages people have been leaving outside the dallas police headquarters where this memorial you see there has been growing, balloons, flowers, and notes like this. ♪ >>> you are live in the cnn newsroom. i'm jim sciutto in washingt

sara sidner joins us live from dallas headquarters. if you look behind her, it's obvious the tribute to those officers, the memorial, so to speak, is growing and growing. it looks remarkable behind you, sarah. take me there and tell me what's happening? >> ashleigh, every single day it grows. they have police from michigan, messages to the family saying we are with you. we are with you for the fallen officers. they have messages to them as well. there are paintings and teddy bears. take a look at this painting. almost a ghostly presence that someone has painted there. that is the city of dallas skyline with five people representing the five officers who lost their lives. right next to it, you see the teddy bears with the last names of each of the officers who died. three of those officers, as you mentioned, got laid to rest today. i do want to show you some other parts of this. it's really ponyie -- poignant, some of the messages left. someone left, we support and love you. there's also two large message on the side of the police car.

our sara sidner is live today outside dallas police headquarters. sadly, sara, as i look at the memorial behind you, the funerals are not over yet. we have more coming tomorrow and saturday. >> reporter: yeah. this is really difficult for this city. truly the city is in mourning. if you look at the memorial, it keeps growing and growing. there are dozens of people here, police officers from as far away as california who have come out to pay their respects. we also heard a gripping story from the wife of the dallas area rapid transit officer, the first to be called in the line of duty. he was laid to rest yesterday. she came up and spoke and said something extraordinary. she said, first of all, they were married just two weeks ago. she, too, is an officer. i want you to hear a little bit about her and about her husband, brent thompson. >> though i'm heard broken and hurt, i'm going to put on my badge and uniform and return to the street along with all of my brothers and sisters in blue. to the coward that tried to break me and my brothers and sisters,

cnn's sara sidner is in dallas with more. good morning, sara. >> good morning.s an incredible show of support for the dallas police. i want to take you through a little bit of what we've been seeing. every day it changes because every day it grows. you can barely see the police cars underneath. this is a message that someone left just yesterday. when times get hard, keep praying for love. just remember to take a look above because god is love. there are so many people from so many different places. you'll start noticing that. we saw someone from eastern michigan police that were here. look at this, very, very touching. look at, you'll see all of these bears, and each of the bears has a name of one of the officers who was killed. three of these officers will be buried today. now, i want to give you a look from above at just how big this has gotten. it started with just two police cars. it has grown to an amazing sight here. you can see it from far away because of all of the balloons and all of the notes. we're talking about people from all different communities.

sara sidner shows us. >> reporter: a robot and a pound of c4.llas police used in an unprecedented move to save officers' lives. the officers used it, likely the first in america, a row bobot wa bomb to kill a cop-killing sniper. >> we knew from negotiations this was the suspect. because he was asking us how many did he get and telling us how many more he wanted to kill. >> reporter: he had already killed five officers and wounded seven during a 45-minute gun battle. >> he's in that building! >> reporter: chief brown made the final call after a two-hour negotiation. he told his s.w.a.t. team to come up with a creative plan that would keep officers out of the line of fire and take out the suspect. >> they improvised this whole idea in about 15, 20 minutes. extraordinary. >> reporter: that plan involved this robot, with c4 explosives. >> this is 454 grabs of c4. >> reporter: we asked matt barnett to show youf us how this would have worked. this is a similar model. notice the arm extension. that would have held the c4 explosive in place. police then

our sara sidner tonight shows us how it went down. >> reporter: a robot and a pound of c-4.s police use in an unprecedented move to save officers' lives. in the heat of battle, the dallas police used the extraordinary tactic likely the first in america, a robot with a bomb to kill a cop-killing sniper. >> we knew through negotiation this was the suspect because he was asking how many did i get? he was telling us how many more he wanted to kill. >> reporter: he had already killed five officers. wounded seven and two civilians during a 45-minute gun battle. >> slow down. he's in the damn building right there. don't know where he's at? he's in that building. >> reporter: chief brown made the final call. after a two-hour negotiation. he told his s.w.a.t. team to come up with a creative plan that would keep officers out of the line of fire and take out the suspect. >> they improvised this whole idea in about 15, 20 minutes. extraordinary. >> reporter: that plan involved this kind of robot secured with c-4 explosive. >> so that right there is a pound of c-4? >> yeah, this is 454 g

inside the el centro building. >> sara sidner, kyung lah in dallas now. first sara give us the latest. >> we heard from chief brown who talked a lot about the suspect who is now diseased. he said he wouldn't say anything about the three other people who they have detained in connection potentially with the shootings. but he said the suspect did tell police he was acting alone but that he also wanted to kill white people and particularly kill white police officers. but that he was not affiliated with any other organization. that he was doing this because he was angry about what's happening in this country when it comes to police versus black americans. we also heard from the police chief exactly how the suspect ended up dying. >> we cornered one suspect and we tried to negotiate for several hours. negotiations broke down. we had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect. we saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on -- it's extension for it to detonate where the suspect was. other options would have exposed our officers to grave dange

our sara sidner is on the streets. she's in cleveland with us. it's wild. there are several hundred people here, and they jumped over a barricade that was set up to try to keep people in the public square. >> whose streets? >> our streets! >> whose streets? >> our streets! [ inaudible ] >> whose streets? >> our streets! >> reporter: now i got you. okay. what's happening is -- [ inaudible ] ♪ >> all right, unfortunately, we can't really hear sara there. protesters, obviously, very, very loud on the streets. i didn't get a sense of how many there are there, but i do know this, having been now in cleveland today, yesterday, over the weekend, there are a lot of security personnel around the "q," the quicken loan arena here in cleveland. there's a lot of police, law enforcement. they've actually been brought in from all over the country. we'll have much more on this part of the story. that's coming up as well. >>> also coming up, we're going to turn to the chaos in turkey right now. he had just sat down for an interview with cnn. we'll tell you what h

. >> reporter: sara sidner, cnn, dallas. >> the tragedy in dallas is the latest of course in a seriesigh profile shootings, demonstrators were initially in dallas protesting the police shooting deaths of two men, alton sterling and philando castile. they are calling for retraining for some departments. joining us hillary clinton supporter scott bolden and our cnn law enforcement analyst. scott good morning to you. >> good morning. >> you just returned back from i think a place that is at the center of the conversation, should there be retraining. tell us about that and the conversations that are happening about law enforcement training. >> this is -- i just recently came from the federal law enforcement training center. i spent six years there representing them in washington, d.c. the conversation has been going on for several years, at least three years i know of. regarding retraining law enforcement officers. trying to take away a lot of the militarization and get back to serving the public. but you have to have both. there's got to be a balance here. because of incidents like we ha

let's begin with sara sidner. she's on the scene for us. what's the latest you're learning?rter: wolf, we're seeing people come and over and over again say their prayers, hug a police officer who is out here, and also we've seen tears. we've seen people coming up and just having

i have sara sidner in the thick of things outside this arena. in the cleveland public square. ra, tell me what you're saying. >> we're walk iing a mile and a half around the entire area that's been heavily protected, protesters got into the streets but police have calmly been on the side, it's been a very calm but very loud protest. i want to let you knee a few seconds ago we saw someone holding a long gun strapped across his back, proof that it is an open-carry state here in ohio. the police handled him calmly. the protesters basically ignored him with a couple yelling at him that he was an idiot, according to the protesters but there were no issues between the two. what you're hearing is a lot of people who are against trump becoming president. there are people here from the immigrant community. there are people here from black lives matter, people here from the latino community. people here from the muslim community as well as just some folks from around the world who do not support trump. we have not yet seen pro-trump supporters yet but we have certainly seen hundreds upon

we want to go right now to on the ground in dallas, sara sidner is there.are on the scene of the standoff. what are you seeing? >> reporter: boris, there have been flash bangs. witnesses talking about the fact they saw s.w.a.t. teams gogging into el centro college. that is happening over the past hour. if you look over my shoulders, you will see a huge number of police cars here on main street. this is the main drag through downtown. just behind me you will see the bank of america building. the building with the green lights on it. there is a mcdonald's a way up. people were hearing sounds of gunshots a block over. we are close to city hall. a couple blocks from city hall. a federal building there. people were evacuated from those buildings and they could not get to their cars because the area is blocked off. big police presence. we are not seeing the intensity on some of the officers' faces that people were saying in the beginning. there is a bit of calm now. they believe they have cornered whoever is responsible for the devastating shooting. what you are

we want to bring on sara sidner and kiong log and ed lauvendera from mesquite, texas, the home of this dallas shooter, micah xavier johnson. >> reporter: we have been here in the neighborhood where officers started arriving around 1:00 this morning in the house behind me serving out warnings throughout the morning. we have seen officers pulling out minibrown bags of evidence. we have spoken with some neighbors who say that micah johnson was a recluse. after his time serving in afghanistan, he had returned as a different person. one neighbor told us that micah johnson told them ha he he had e amount of rifles with him. it has been a chaotic and hectic morning here in this neighborhood just east of dallas where the shooting took place, a neighborhood where several residents tell us they didn't know much about micah johnson, not someone they routinely saw wondering the neighborhood or saw outside of his home very much. a great deal of interest from the law enforcement agencies that have been here that just finished wrapping up their work here a little while ago in removing the last bag of

let's begin with sara sidner. she's on the scene for us. what's the latest you're learning? >> reporter: wolf, we're seeing people come and over and over again say their prayers, hug a police officer who is out here, and also we've seen tears. we've seen people coming up and just having a real emotional moment here at this memorial. you see it's growing. balloons and flowers, absolutely covering two dallas police cars. what the dallas police department wants people to remember are those five men who lost their lives in this shootout. a lot of people are also talking about the suspect. and what is being found in his home and the fact that clearly this was a planned event. wolf. >> sarah, very, very sad moment indeed. stand by. i want to get back to you shortly as police dig into the shooter's background, we're learning new details about micah xavier johnson, on one hand friends described him as a jokester, fun loving saying nothing in his character foreshadowed the deadly rampage. police say he was infuriated and wanted to kill white police officers and wanted to kill white p

thank you so much, sara sidner. >>> donald trump calling himself a law and order candidate and jeannes on the iconic women seen in these images. that image capturing the hearts and minds around the world. we'll be right back. if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. if other treatments haven't worked well enough, ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works by focusing right in the gi-tract to help control damaging inflammation and is clinically proven to begin helping many patients achieve both symptom relief as well as remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. while not reported with entyvio, pml, a rare, serious brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occu

i want to go to cnn's sara sidner who has been in dallas all night for the latest details on what you're seeing and hearing on the ground there, sara. >> well, john, you can see behind me, you can see what's going on, and it's not a whole lot. before, several hours ago, there were dozens of police officers filling this road. we are right on main street in downtown dallas which would normally on a friday during work hours be bustling with people, people going about their business, but now what we are seeing is a very quiet downtown. i also want to mention to you what we've been hearing. some extraordinary things from the chief of police here. dallas police chief david brown talking about how it was that the suspect ended up dying. that he sent in a robot that had an explosive on it. that they detonated in order to kill the suspect. most of us have never heard of law enforcement using something like that, trying to save the remaining officers, after five officers have been killed and several others injured. he also talked a little bit about the suspect who is now deceased. the suspect who

our sara sidner this morning is live in dallas with more. ra, we spoke yesterday ahead of the funerals, the anticipation, what was it like? >> reporter: well, let's talk about the fact that the family of michael smith actually ended up mourning privately. they wanted to have their time to say good-bye on a private level. but then you had hundreds of people coming out for two other police officers who lost their lives back on thursday. police officer lorne aherns' family saw the support from the community, as did dallas area rapid transit officer brent thompson. we heard a moving speech from his wife, knowing that his wife is also a fellow officer. the two were married less than a month ago. >> though i'm heartbroken and hurt, i'm going to put on my badge and my uniform and return to the street, along with all of my brothers and sisters in blue. to the coward that tried to break me and my brothers and sisters, know your hate made us stronger. >> reporter: now, after taking a part in a moving memorial that honored all five of the officers, pres

also here, law enforcement analyst art roderick and sara sidner. sara is in dallas, she has been there all day and all night and police on the ground are giving you information. what are they going through right now? >> look, you're hearing directly from the police chief. they are in mourning. they are thinking not only about the colleagues that they have lost and the fellow officers, but the families who are now going through the devastation of having to deal with the aftermath of that loss and those who are watching their loved ones, who are injured, who are trying to heal, who are trying to get through it, who are trying to survive. and this city iscertainly mourning. we watched as they lowered the flags one by one, first the city of dallas flag. then the state of texas flag. then the united states flag. giving you some semblance that it's not just the city of dallas that's in mourning. it's the nation that is trying to come to terms with all of this. and so at this point in time, there's both the mourning and the investigation that still has to

we have sara sidner with us now. what more can you tell us about this bomb-carrying robot?e heard about this initially from the chief several days ago and now coming out and again defending the use of it. >> right. there isn't a great amount of criticism. there are groups coming out in numbers saying this was the right thoiing to do. the chief said very clearly why they ended up using this device. we will talk a little bit about the device now. it's a remote tech model f5 claw and arm extension. on that claw and arm extension there was c-4, highly explosive, a pound of it. i want to let you listen to the chief. this is what he initially said as to why they decided this was to important to use. keep in mind, negotiations had failed and a police officer was shot during those negotiations. >> we saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was. other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. >> other options would have exposed their officers to grave danger. two civilians were also hit. at

. >> i want to bring in cnn's sara sidner.l you can't take each other for granted. >> yeah, there are so many stories being shared from the five officers who died, their families coming forward. i wanted you to listen to the story of the first dallas area rapid transit officer killed in the line of duty. he had just gotten married to a fellow officer just two weeks prior to the shooting and she came forward and she talked to the crowd just about who he was and who she is. >> i'm going to put on my badge and return to the street along with all my brothers and sisters in blue. to the coward that tried to break me and my brothers and sisters, you know your hate made us stronger. >> brent thompson she is talking about, that was her husband. he had six children. there was also a funeral for lorne ahrnes where people gathered in the hundreds to say good-bye to him. we're expect the same numbers for mike smith. today, the public can say their final good-byes, ana. >> all right, and we look at the pictures of these five men who lost t

. >> sara sidner, thank you. i want to talk more about the situation in dallas.now, cnn law enforcement contributor steve moore. he is a retired supervisory special agent for the fbi. we'll start with you. because the white house yesterday came out and made a pretty bold statement saying president obama considers the attack on dallas police a hate crime. you know, the killer specifically mentioned he wanted to kill white people, especially white police officers, according to law enforcement there. how do you feel about the president defining this as a hate crime? >> you know, i have to say, i would not describe hate crime as the most comfortable word choice, considering these circumstances. there's so much we do not know about what took place what motivated this person. we only have the one account of law enforcement. we haven't had the opportunity to really look into his history in a meaningful way. when we use a phrase like "hate crime," we're typically referring to crimes against people of color, people of various religious groups, lgbt people, people who have

we begin our coverage this morning with our sara sidner. she's live for us in dallas. morning, sara. >> reporter: good morning, poppy and chris. you know, this city is in mourning. we heard yesterday from two presidents, president george w. bush, and president barack obama. both of them had a very clear message to the country. the country, they said, must unite. today there will be unity. it will be filled with sorrow and support for the families of the three officers who will be laid to rest today. brent thompson, who was with d.a.r.t., the first dallas area rapid transit officer to be killed in the line of duty will be laid to rest today. michael smith with dallas police department, and lorne ahrens. all of them laid to rest today as the city mourns. >> i know how far we've come against impossible odds. race relations have improved dramatically in my lifetime. >> reporter: the president trying once again to console the nation. >> my faith tells me they did not die in vain. i believe our sorrow can make us a better country. i believe our righteous anger can be transfor