Dallas gunman identified, bomb materials found in home: police

Police on Friday confirmed the gunman who killed five officers in an ambush in Dallas was a 25-year-old named Micah Johnson, an Army veteran and reported ‘loner’ from Texas with no criminal history.

‘The deceased suspect has been identified as Micah Johnson,’ the Dallas Police Department said in an update on the probe into what marked the single biggest loss of life for law enforcement in America since 9/11.

‘During the search of the suspect’s home, detectives found bomb-making materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition, and a personal journal of combat tactics,’ it said in a statement, adding that detectives were analysing the information contained in the journal.

‘Information provided through the course of the investigation indicates that the suspect was an Army veteran and others have identified him as a loner.’

‘The suspect has no criminal history,’ the police statement added.

It noted that Johnson’s Facebook page referred to Richard Griffin of the rap group Public Enemy, aka Professor Griff, who the department said ‘embraces a radical form of Afrocentrism.’

The White House said earlier that investigators have ‘ruled out’ any link to domestic or international terrorism in the Dallas shooting.

At a news conference in New York, US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the gunman appeared to have acted alone.

The US military said earlier that Johnson - who had been widely identified by media as the shooter - had served with US forces in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014.

The Texas resident served as an active reservist for six years from 2009 to 2015, holding the rank of Private First Class and specialising in carpentry and masonry, an Army statement said.