As media coverage of police shootings intensified , protests erupted in the wake of the July 5 , 2016 shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge , Louisiana , and the July 6 shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights , Minnesota . On July 7 , towards the end of one of these protests in Dallas , Texas , Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and fired upon a group of police officers , killing five officers and injuring nine others . Two civilians were also wounded . Johnson was an Army Reserve Afghan War veteran who was reportedly angry over police shootings of black men and stated that he wanted to kill white people , especially white police officers . Following the shooting , Johnson fled inside a building on the campus of El Centro College . Police followed him there , and a standoff ensued . In the early hours of July 8 , police killed Johnson with a bomb attached to a remote control bomb disposal robot . It was the first time U.S. law enforcement used a robot to kill a suspect . The shooting was the deadliest incident for U.S. law enforcement officers since the September 11 attacks in 2001 and saw a massive uprising of public support for U.S. police officers in the form of the Blue Lives Matter movement
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
History of the United States (2008–present)