DALLAS _ The man who gunned down five police officers and wounded several others in a racially motivated attack in downtown Dallas only wanted to talk to a black police negotiator, a high-ranking law enforcement official told The Dallas Morning News on Saturday.
Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, made the demands as police negotiated with him late Thursday night and into early Friday morning. That was hours after police say he opened fire on white officers who were guarding protesters during a rally against shootings of black men across the country.
"He didn't want a white one," said the official, who asked the News not to use his name because he was not authorized to speak about the case.
The official said Johnson did wind up speaking with a black negotiator, but the talks failed after several tense hours inside the second floor of El Centro College.
Authorities then used a robot to take in an explosive device near Johnson, then detonated it, killing him.
The official also said that Johnson "was lying" when he initially denied having a car downtown. Police later recovered a vehicle that they believe he used to drive himself downtown before the fatal shootings.
Meanwhile Saturday, local and federal authorities spent the day continuing their broad and multilayered investigation into the shooting.
While a host of FBI agents continued to meticulously comb downtown streets for evidence, Dallas homicide investigators analyzed evidence already gathered from Johnson while preparing to question their own officers next week about the shooting.
Police say Johnson killed four Dallas officers and one from Dallas Area Rapid Transit, and wounded nine other people, including seven more law enforcement officers.
He told police negotiators that he was upset about the shooting deaths of black men by police in other parts of the country and that he wanted to kill white people in general, and white officers in particular. He did the shootings at the end of what had been a peaceful protest against police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana earlier in the week.
With Johnson dead, authorities must now plow through an unenviable investigation that's actually three in one: a homicide investigation, an assault inquiry and an officer-involved shooting probe.
Already, authorities have seized rifles, ammunition, bomb-making materials and a personal journal of combat tactics from Johnson's home in Mesquite. The bomb-making materials and the large amount of ammunition owned by Johnson have investigators speculating that his assault plans were even grander.
Officials at El Centro College said Saturday that it appears Johnson parked his car at a parking garage adjacent to the school, then made his way inside. It's still unclear when and where he began his deadly assault, but at some point, he shot his way into one of the school's three buildings, then ran upstairs to another building and finally to a third where he was trapped by police.
"Our account is that he tried multiple locations to shoot his way into the building, and eventually he was able to do that and enter the A building and go up the stairs in the B building, which gave him access to the second floor," said Ann Hatch, a school spokesperson. "He then went down the hallway on the second floor into the C building."
Patrol cars blocked off roadways and yellow crime scene tape stretch across several blocks of downtown Saturday. Streets surrounding El Centro College, the West End and the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building are expected to remain closed through the weekend as officials investigate.
A team of "approximately 70 evidence-collection experts from the Dallas field office, neighboring field offices, and the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia" meticulously went through the evidence on those closed streets Saturday, said FBI spokesperson Allison Mahan.
She stressed that the FBI is serving only as support to Dallas police and that much of the evidence will be turned over to Dallas investigators, though some items might be examined by the FBI if Dallas officials request it.
"We continue to provide all available resources and personnel in support of DPD," Mahan said, "to include agents from numerous investigative squads as well as investigative analysts, crisis management specialists and victim assistance specialists, to name a few."
Investigators are trying to answer countless questions. Why did Johnson open fire on officers as they guarded the protesters? How was he able to move through the crowd, seemingly unnoticed?
Did anyone help him or have knowledge of his attack? What kind of weapon did he use and where did it come from?
Despite days of work by detectives, many of those questions won't be answered until next week or even later.
The department's special investigations unit, which looks into all assaults on officers and shootings involving police, will question key witnesses and the officers who actually fired their weapons.
Investigators have already interviewed more than 200 officers, and at least 12 of them _ all of them Dallas officers _ fired their guns.
And even after the investigation into the shooting is completed, the department will still have to conduct an internal affairs inquiry to determine if internal policies were followed.
Police and city officials have said investigators will continue to look into whether Johnson had help.
And it appears El Centro will continue to be the center of their investigation.
Officials said Johnson shot into the crowd of protesters Thursday night from an elevated position in a part of the building initially identified incorrectly as a parking garage.
At one point, video footage shows him shooting a police officer in the back on the street where the protesters were marching.
Detectives will also have to review hours of witness videos, dash-cam footage, 911 call audio and other audio and body camera footage if it's available.
And, with the help of federal authorities, investigators will begin to try and learn where Johnson obtained his weapon. They'll have to trace the weapon from the serial number to the manufacturer to its original retail or wholesale seller.
"You may go through five different people who say, 'I bought that gun, but I sold it,'" said Mike Duncan, a former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Special Agent. "It's kind of a laborious process, but it's what we've got, and that's how it's done."
Duncan said federal authorities will try to find the origins of Johnson's explosives as well.
But even getting that far will be difficult. Reports of an unknown man inside the parking garage at Dallas police headquarters Saturday put everyone back on guard.
Special investigator Angela Arredondo tweeted her frustration at the frightening interruption: "we could just really use a freaking break right now! Please!! Just give us a break!"
Attorney Bob Gorsky understands. The longtime attorney for police was at headquarters early Friday morning as investigators learned that their colleagues had been shot.
"I know they were hurting, but they were doing their job just like they do in every event," Gorsky said.
