DALLAS _ Two police officers have reportedly been wounded after shots were fired in downtown Dallas during a rally and march Thursday night.
Bystanders reported hearing multiple shots fired near the area of Market and Main streets.
"Everyone just started running," said Devante Odom, 21. "We lost touch with two of our friends just trying to get out of there."
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 demonstrators were peacefully walking down Main Street.
"The cops were peaceful," he said. "They were taking pictures with us and everything."
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit has suspended all bus and rail service in downtown.
WFAA-TV reported that officers are holding AR-15s walking through downtown.
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 downtown's Belo Garden Park. The crowd then planned to march to Main Street Gardens.
Both private security and Dallas police were at the rally.
