DALLAS _ Three Dallas police officers and one transit officer have been killed and several others were injured after shots were fired in downtown Dallas during a rally and march Thursday night.
Dallas police Chief David Brown said about 8:58 p.m., at least two snipers shot 11 officers and one civilian from elevated positions during the rally in downtown.
Two officers were in surgery earlier in the night and three were in critical condition, police said.
Three other Dallas Area Rapid Transit officers were wounded but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, said Morgan Lyons, a spokesman for DART.
The officers were shot "ambush style," Brown said, with some shot in the back.
"Give our officers strength to catch these suspects and bring them to justice tonight," he said.
About 11:30 p.m., a person of interest in a photo circulated by the city and Dallas police turned himself in, police said.
Another alleged suspect in a shootout with Dallas SWAT officers was taken into custody, police said.
A suspicious package was discovered near the location of the suspect in the shootout and is being secured by the Dallas police bomb squad.
Earlier in the night, Brown said at one suspect was cornered on the second floor of the El Centro College parking garage, Brown said.
Shortly before midnight, a Dallas police officer saw an individual carrying a camouflaged bag, walking quickly down Lamar Street. The person threw the bag in the back of a black Mercedes which then sped off, police said.
Officers followed the vehicle southbound on Interstate 35E and performed a traffic stop at I-35E and Kiest Boulevard, police said.
Police were questioning both occupants of the vehicle.
"It's a heartbreaking moment for the city of Dallas," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said.
"I ask everybody focus on one thing right now and that is Dallas police officers, their families, those that are deceased, those that are in the hospital fighting for their lives," Rawlings said. "Let's all come together and support. ... I've never been as proud."
The shooting victims were taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital and Baylor University Medical Center, KXAS-TV (NBC5) reported.
Bystanders reported hearing multiple shots fired shortly before 9 p.m. in the area of Market and Main streets.
At the Greyhound bus station downtown, outgoing transport was temporarily halted with the heavy police presence outside. "I'm not gonna send a bus out and make it a moving target in all this mess," a voice announced over the loudspeaker.
Inside, Shantay Johnson was in tears. She'd left home at 4 Thursday morning and just wanted to get back there.
She said she'd been using the Wi-Fi at El Centro when the shots rang out _ "pop, pop, pop," she said. "Then everybody just ran."
She did too.
"This is traumatizing for me," she said, sobbing. "I got two kids. I can't get shot."
Johnson said the man in a photo from police who had been labeled a person of interest smiled at her during the march. Ten to 15 minutes later, she said, the shots began.
"Everyone just started running," said Devante Odom, 21. "We lost touch with two of our friends just trying to get out of there."
Stay-at-home mom Renee Sifflet of Dallas stood at the corner of Commerce and Houston, waiting for the chaos to die down so she could retrieve her three teenage kids, who were in hiding.
"I brought them here for a positive experience, something they could say they were part of when they're older," she said. "Then it turned negative."
When they started running, she said, she actually lost track of her 15-year-old son for two frightening minutes in the mayhem. "Thank God he has a cellphone," she said.
Carlos Harris, who lives downtown, said the shooters "were strategic. It was tap, tap, pause. Tap, tap, pause."
Harris, who said he was in the military, said he heard someone fire back with an AR-15.
Before the shots were fired, the demonstration was peacefully walking down Main Street.
"The cops were peaceful," he said. "They were taking pictures with us and everything."
Sharay Santora, who was at the rally, said the gunfire sounded like a string of firecrackers. Santora said after the first round of shots, there were a few minutes of calm, and then the firing began again.
Stacey Brown, 30 and Bianca Avery, 34, were standing behind Dealey Plaza when they heard the shots.
"This was peaceful. This was peaceful," Brown said. "We were headed back to our cars to go home. But we turned that corner (at Main Street) and all hell broke loose."
"I heard a shot and all of a sudden people are running ... children everywhere, everything," Avery said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that his office "will provide every measure of support in this difficult and developing situation."
"The brave men and women of the Dallas Police and Sheriff's Departments are in our thoughts and prayers," he said.
After Alton Sterling's shooting death this week in Baton Rouge, La., was captured on camera, a rally and march were planned in downtown Dallas. But Philando Castile's death in Falcon Heights, Minn., changed the conversation, North Texas activists said.
The men, who were both black, were killed by officers within 48 hours. Cellphone cameras captured both.
Hundreds turned out at the evening rally Thursday at Belo Gardens. The crowd then planned to march to Main Street Gardens.
"It is important to allow people to grieve first and foremost," said the Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, one of the event's organizers. "Then we want to create a space for anger and rage so people can get that out.
"This is about local people," Hood said. "This is about the grass roots."
Both private security and Dallas police were at the rally.
