MESQUITE, Texas – The man who killed five Dallas police officers and wounded seven others was described as a loner, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and a follower of black militant groups on social media.
Among the Facebook “likes” of 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson were the African American Defense League and the New Black Panther Party, which was founded in Dallas. He also was a member of the Facebook group “Black Panther Party Mississippi.” A photo on Facebook showed Johnson wearing a dashiki – his raised, clinched fist over the words “Black Power.”
Johnson, who was killed by a police remote-controlled bomb early Friday, had learned about the military in the ROTC program at the high school he attended in Mesquite, a blue-collar suburb east of Dallas. During his military service, he was a private first class with a specialty in carpentry and masonry, according to the military. Officials said he served in the Army Reserve for six years starting in 2009 and did one tour in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014.
When authorities searched Johnson’s home Friday they found bomb-making materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition, and a personal journal of combat tactics.
Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown said that Johnson, who was black, had told negotiators before he was killed that he was upset with the fatal shootings earlier in the week of black men by police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota.